SPIRIT AND MATTER

BEFORE THE BAR OF

MODERN SCIENCE

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SPIRIT " MATTER

BEFORE THE BAR OF

MODERN SCIENCE

BY

ISAAC W. HEYSINGER, M.A., M.D.

Associate,Societyfor Psychical Research {,London) ; Member U.S. Military Order, Loyal
Legion; Member of the Penna Historical Society; Pennsylvania State Insane Hospital
Commission; Undergraduate in Arts , Dartmouth College; Captain U.S. Army, War
of the Rebellion; Graduate in Arts and Sciences, Union University ; Certificate
in Analytical Chemistry, University of Michigan ; Graduate in Medicine and
Surgery, Jefferson Medical College; OfficialExpert in U.S. Circuit and
Supreme Court Patent Causes, Mechanical, Chemical, and Electrical;
Author of '"^ Solar Energy, its Source and Mode throughout the
"
Universe" ; The Light of China" (translation from the
Chinese and Commentary on the Tdo Teh King);
^^
Factors of Belief" ; ^' The Mechanism of Con-
version"
; ^^Therapeutics of North American
Soils and Climates," Etc.

"

PHILADELPHIA

J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY

LONDON: T. WERNER LAURIE

1910
^l\~ r-(\j./^K^^ {"X\^CKy\^

'\

\C^ ix
n'^

PREFACE

The time seems to have come for a clear and dis-

passionate
statement of the inevitable trend of
Psychology,as it now is,and as it is reachingout to
newer and granderfields of discovery in the realms of
life, mind and spirit.We have passed the regions of
darkness and doubt, and to-day it is true, in all its
fulness and strength,that the greatest and pro-
foundest students of Psychology,and of its kindred
sciences, most of these sciences new, and all of them
reconstructed by fuller knowledge,are agreed,with
practical unanimity,that the old past theories,or
hypothesesrather,of materialism, of nihilism, of em-
piricism,

have been proven untenable and altogether

worthless,and that the so-called physicalsciences
have never been at all capableof takingsides in the
controversywhich is now about ended. We have
advanced so far and so surely, now, that the alter-
natives
presentedare few, as regards the general
outcome, and that these are non-physical, in any
sense in which the term physicalhas ever been
legitimately employed. In other words, the trans- cendental
has been the final victor, and we are dealing
to-daywith the various phasesof transcendentalism,
and even here we have reached a plane in which
serious conflict has terminated, and psychical students
are searchingout, with perfectand friendly interest,
the solution of the still remainingopen questions.
We are clearly able to see that the final conclusions
lie along lines alreadyfar advanced, and that the
future advances will be to stillhigherplanes, which
we alreadyclearly see, and can more or less definitely

follow and map out.

These advances are to be found described or in- dicated
in many, many standard books, in the re-

615-850
vi PREFACE

ports and of able investigators, in the

papers many
work of world-famous students and experts,
many

but they have not, as yet, been brought together and

co-ordinated, so
far as
I know, in a single compact
volume.

With much diffidence I have endeavoured, in

these chapters, to do this, and I have sought to make

the book readable and interesting as well. If I have

in wise succeeded, work will have been well

any my
done if not, rest assured that others will take the
; up
task and it on until all the world, even the cultured
un-
carry

world, as it is called, will witness its triumph

and look back with horror those bad, old, dark,
upon
blind days "

"
When metes and bounds were set which none might pass,
When Science closed her and could not
eyes, see,

When truth was lumped, and measured in the

mass,
And mind and matter seemed a great morass ^
Where self-engendered monsters chanced to be, "

Behold 1 and lo, the vast inflowing sea ! "

The Author.
 TABLE OF CONTENTS

PART I

Chapter I

The time has arrived when the subjects of this work

can be properly treated " ^The older theologiesbecoming
displaced sharp divisions between
" ^The science and
religion disappearing ^New conceptions of mind and "

consciousness ^The spiritual basis of

"
religion ing
becom-

universally recognised ^The whole subject being "

considered now from a new standpoint Advances "

in all directions Christianity the great gainer ^The

" "

foundations of Christian belief being supported to

absolute demonstration by the latest science and
psychology
Psychology as a science "
Dependent on the newer

sciences for evidence " Until recently impossible to

fully demonstrate " Has been opposed by an a priori "

Physical research insufficient " Transcends a material

basis for its evidence " The basis of psychology is the
transcendental, the superphysical " Definition of the
term psychology
Authorities Cited

Herbert Spencer " Professor Shaler " Professor

James " Rev. Dr Davies " Canons Church of England "

Max Miiller " Rev. Dr Gladden " Romanes "

Huxley " ^

Locke " Hammond " Haeckel

Chapter II 15

Argument for spirituaUsm Not certain that these "

phenomena in general are spiritualistic ^May be a "

greater integration, including all psychical phenomena

"
Natural science has failed to investigate these
phenomena Had it " done so, great results would have
followed long since "
The transcendent importance of
genuine psychology " The connections of mind and
matter " The attitude of primitive Christianity "

The revolt of Luther

Authorities Cited

Romanes " Lamarck " Richet " Sir W. Crookes "

Tyndall " Davies

viii TABLE OF CONTENTS
PACK

Chapter III 21

Spiritualismin the church "

Original reformers all
spiritualistic " Catholic church spiritualistic formation
Re- "

abandoned direct spiritualism,in order

to secure standing against the older church
Left "

Bible as Yet canon historic record " of Scripture itself

was revelation
spiritualistic
from to the old church in
comparatively recent times Imperfection of the "

Bible as a merely historic record Errors of trans-

lation "

; validity of the books themselves " The record

demands continuous spiritualisticcontrol and
revelation
Authorities Cited
Luther "
Zwingli " Melancthon " Westcott " Dr
Roberts " Lardner " Farrar "
ReligiousTract Society

Chapter IV 28
Results the
of despiritualising church "
Decay of
vital Christianity Contrast with ages " the earlier "

Christian miracles ; when, if at all,and why, were they

discontinued ? The resurrection Scientific evidence "
"

in its favour Anecdote of an apparent resurrection

"

Authorities Cited

Moody "
Bishop Bradley " Tertulhan " Irenaeus "

Orton " Sir John Franklin " Romanes

Chapter V 36
The spiritual conflict within the church " ^The
triumph Christianityin earlier ages
of Its permanent "

spiritualisingpower Lost in sacerdotalism Its " "

spiritualistic
phenomena identical with the universal
experiences of all mankind
spiritualistic in all ages "

The in the i6th century

revolt Surrender " to and corporation
in-
with materialism An absentee " God ; and
an impersonal Nature in control
Authorities Cited

Du Prel " St Paul " Herron " Canon Barnett "

Jesus " ^Montucci

Chapter VI . . . . . . . . .43
Causality fatal mistake of sectarian
"
theology The "

Relegation God and Christ to another

of sphere, and
substitution of a blind Nature We have no knowledge "

of causes except of volitional causes Only intelligent "

design, and divine volition constantly acting, can plain

ex-

the universe The nearly fatal error "

of theology,
*'
there be a personal God, He
If is not immediately
concerned with natural causation "

Authorities Cited

Romanes " Sir John Herschel " Lamarck " Sir

Isaac Newton " Cicero "
Lyte "
Chopin " Newman
" Romanes
 TABLE OF CONTENTS ix
PAGE

Chapter VII 52
The psychism of the universe Protoplasm a "

machine intelligentlydesigned and constructed "

Living organisms are also intelligentesigners and

d
constructors A constant interchange between
"
these
psychisms
Authorities Cited

Romanes " Conn " Dr Bingham

Chapter VIII 55
Spiritualismthe basis of all religions,
present or past,
and among all peoples All religiondepends on " tion
revela-
"
Religion extends back to the origin of human
existence Spiritualism
"
extends back equally, and is
the means by which religions became revealed to man-
kind
"

Religious spiritualism identical at all times and

among all peoples These have been the great factors
"

of human advancement Intercommunion between the "

living and the survivingspirits of the dead never denied

until recently,and then only by a few who have never
studied the phenomena, or the principleson which they
have been demonstrated "

Spiritualism not a new

thing ; its denial is the new thing It challenges "

investigationat all times " If it ever existed it must and

does exist now
Authorities Cited

Brinton " "The Supernatural in Nature" Tylor "

"
Sargent " Sir Charles Lyell Dr Davies Rev. Dr " "

Ellin wood " Shaler Professor William James

"

Chapter IX .61
Spiritualismbefore the bar of science " Has the same

rightto fair investigationas have other phenomena " In

all experimentation must be observed conditions "

Science has, however, approached these phenomena in

a hostile spirit An unbiassed mind is the first pre-
requisite
"

of anyone claimingto be a man of science

Authorities Cited

New Testament " Mrs Ross Church " Sir William

Crookes

Chapter X .
.68
Experimental psychology Spiritualismamong " the
Chinese "
Time, patience, and continued labour,
and some
expense required to investigate spiritual
phenomena The same is true of chemistry, geology
"

and all other pursuits A whole literature to be "

studied Materials
" to be procured Mediums to be "

consulted and often rejected " Times and conditions

must observedbe " ^There must be thought, study,
comparison and investigation An education is re-
quisite "

before this study can be intelligentlypursued "

The same is true of chemistry,mathematics, geology.

X TABLE OF CONTENTS
PAGE

Chapter X " continued

astronomy, biology and other sciences Science has "

until recently discredited such education Impossible "

to pursue any study under the conditions formerly

demanded in the name of science It began with an "

a priorijudgment against the whole case This attitude "

concededly unscientific
Authorities Cited
Rev. Dr Nevius " Rev. Dr Ellinwood "
Kepler "

Newton

Chapter XI 73
The ban of a priori " Franklin's experiments in
electricityHerbert "
Spencer met the facts by saying
that he had settled the question on a priorigrounds
" Alfred Russel Wallace on a priori

Authorities Cited

Tyndall "

Huxley " Gladstone " Davies " Franklin

"
Spencer " Wallace "
Tennyson

PART II

Chapter XII 81

Summary of Part I. The basis of all religionsthe "

same Identical
" with the claims and practices of
modern spiritualism ^This universality is valid evidence "

of their truth Revelation from the supernormal the

"

common factor Rehgion defined Ethics insufiicient,

"
"

and baseless,and will land

of itself us in misery " The
integratingprincipleof the universe " Chief argument
for the existence of Science
God the new-comer
" It "

abandoned its own in

principles professing to deal with
the supernormal " The concrete results of science
considered

Authorities Cited

Tylor "
J ; Estlin Carpenter Romanes " " Charles
Darwin " Professor Momerie Huxley "

Chapter XIII
Miracles " Hume's Hume's argument " Fallacies in
definitions Fallacy argument
"
Huxley denies in his "

"
Hume's argument on grounds which Knock the
bottom out of all a priori objections to miracles " "

Wallace and Romanes demonstrate worthlessness of

the positionof Hume, and many other scientific men,
toward miracles and spiritualism Miracles defined " "

The New Testament miracles considered in the lightof

scientific discovery Examples, the Resurrection sidered
con-
"

Living and dead protoplasm The principle

" "
 TABLE OF CONTENTS xi
PAGE

Chapter XIII " continued

of continuity An "
intelligentagent operatingin the
universe "
Miracle "
"
may be, not in defiance of, but
in fulfilment of, law The
"
parthenogeneticconception
ascribed Such instances
to numerous and Jesus "

physiological Examples cited among lower animals

" and
from surgicaland medical cases among mankind "

*'
Spontaneous generation " The first creation "

narrative in Genesis Miracles in organic life ; metabol-

ism "

; mental phenomena ; somnambules ; MoUie

Fancher ; X+Y=Z Christianity system
a of tellectual
in- "

liberty; afterwards restricted and perverted

by theology " An avenue between the seen and the seen
un-
worlds
Authorities Cited

Hume Huxley" Romanes WallaceProfessor " " "

W. H. Professor
Thomson Michael Foster Von " "

Hartmann Balfour Stewart Tait

" Dr Gould's " "

"Curiosities of Medicine" Dr Eve's "Remarkable "

Cases in Surgery'* Tacitus Pliny the Younger " " "

Kidd G. H. Lewes
" Comte Lord Kelvin Haeckel " " " "

Rev. Dr Sanders " Elizabeth Stuart Phelps

Chapter XIV no

The limitations of physicalscience "

Huxley's state-
ment
of
its narrow boundaries Jevons on the un-
warranted "

claims of scientific writers The unfairness "

of many writers on scientific subjects Concealment of "

discordant facts Scope of science far narrower than "

often claimed An infallible test of a genuine man " of

science The proof of unworthiness
" and charlatanry "

The fate of the latter The claim that our knowledge "

is assuming an approximately complete character

erroneous We never can
"
comprehend more than an

infinitesimal part New and unexplained facts are "

divergent in extent ; the more science explains the more

\ it has to explain The advances of science have always "

been made from the study of discordant and rejected

residua
Authorities Cited

Huxley "
Jevons " Gladstone " St John Stock

Chapter XV ii6
The dark days of psychology Ignorance regarding "

force and matter Belief that religionwas about to "

disappear Only recently has science taken cognisance

"

of anything non-material- New sciences were necessary "

to prepare the way ^The observer of mere physics "

must see mind at a great disadvantage Spiritual "

truths in the universe

Authorities Cited
Balfour Stewart" P. G. Tait" Sir John Herschel"
Romanes " Lord Kelvin "Sir Oliver Lodge The "

Society for Psychical Research " Dean Swift " Mallock

"
IngersoU Shaler " " Sir William Crookes
xii TABLE OF CONTENTS
PAGE

Chapter XVI 124

The credulityof incredulity A priorithe only fatal "

attitude " The

scientific method Science when fairly "

pursued makes absurd drafts, says Jevons, upon our

powers of comprehension and belief De Morgan on "

science
assuming a priest's cast-off garb dyed to escape
detection Arago on scientific doubt
"
as contrasted
with incredulity The dangers of unlimited scepticism " "

The dogmatism of theology compared with that of

science Ignoring undesirable facts
" The gross credulity "

of ignorant spiritualists finds its counterpart in the

gross increduhty of ignorant scientific specialists The "

passingaway of the dark days of psychology

Authorities Cited

Jevons " De Morgan Laplace Arago " " " Aber-

crombie " Wallace Gregory Ragsky" " " Huss "

Endlicher Diesing Pauthot " " " Gamier "

" Trevillian Mayo Haddock "

" " Lee " Atkinson
" Clark Carpenter Schofield
" "

Chapter XVII 131

Physical science cannot explain its own bases "

Deals only with propertiesand physicalmanifestations

"
Every new discovery in fundamentals shifts the
whole attitude of science Natural history was "

formerly but a descriptivescience of forms, structures

and habits When biology arose, and was pushed to its
"

logicalend, a whole new world of nature appeared "

Laboratory work grotesquely insufficient The passage "

from the physicsof the brain to the corresponding facts

of consciousness unthinkable The phenomenal world "

of lower animals, as shown in their behaviour, does

not contradict our own views of the same Appears to "

be a basis of independentreahty to which each sentiency

helpsitself
Authorities Cited

Lamarck " Cuvier " Darwin " Graham " Wars-

chauer "
^Tyndall Biichner " " Masson

Chapter XVIII 136

The patent systems founded
modern on normal
super-
phenomena Cash value of patented inventions "

as an evidence of the economic value of supernormal

revelations Invention does not depend upon reason
"

;
nor
upon what science deals with ; nor upon what
observations of physicalphenomena deal with It comes "

"
like ** a bolt from the blue ; it is creation ab initio '^ ; "

it is not scientific ; it is instantaneous, and not only

different from but opposed to reason It is the imaging, "

in practicaland useful form, of the unseen and known

un-
from a world of the unseen and unknown A "

singleindecomposable mental act

 TABLE OF CONTENTS xiii
PAGE

Authorities Cited
"
Tennyson "
Merwin on Patentabilityof tions
Inven-
"
" Herschel " Ladd " United States Circuit Court
decisions " United States Supreme Court

Chapter XIX 144

The workshop in the subconscious department of the
mind Telepathy will not account
" for invention "

Comes, like genius and inspiration, from a non-human

psychical source Tennyson on guardian spiritsof the"

dead Spiritual
" manifestations always with us, but we
see them not because blinded with other things "

Their source in an intellectual beyond ^Many ex- amples "

of the subconscious manifesting through the

conscious mind ^They emerge unsolicited, " and respond
"
to undefined wants Error in analogy of thresholds "

of consciousness "' -' " '* "

or higher and lower or strata
as applied to mental phenomena These terms useful "

if we use them merely as formal expressions The scope "

and source the subconscious ofrealm considered "

Found among all animals, and also in plants Found "

also in the morphology of growing organisms Sym- pathy "

universal in extent

Authorities Cited

Swedenborg " Von Hartmann " Newman "

Tennyson Romanes " "

Huxley " Locke " Bowen ling
Kip- "

" Archimedes " Newton " Ladd " Schofield

"
Montgomery " Wundt " Waldstein " Holmes
" Dr G. Thompson " Barker "
Agassiz " Ward "

Darwin " Orton

Chapter XX ^ . 152
Memory the
battleground of empiricism final "

The physical theory of memory untenable pressions

Im- "
**

"
cannot serve, if cerebral or material Use "

of these terms admissible,if we understand that they

are merely used as terms and not as explanations A "

dialogue involving many phases of memory tion

Associa- "

of ideas inadequate A body of memories must "

have a single intelligence which constantly comprehends

each one Professor Bowen " 's example of the memory
of a hundred thousand words in various languages in
-'
which a picker,"who knows each one, must bring the
word to the surface as soon as needed, in its etymology,
its English equivalent, its grammatical relations to
other groups, etc.,etc. Analogy of a librarian finding "

a book meansdesired by
of a catalogue In case of the "

memory, if it is but a collection stored away, then the

subconscious or conscious desire for the word must bring
the word out of the collection ; hence must have known
what to bring beforehand ; hence the collection of
them is unnecessary Physical theory breaks down, in "

every shape " Allied to instinct,and immaterial ; and

would be seen to be supernormal unless so common as
to escape notice
xiv TABLE OF CONTENTS

Authorities Cited
Lord Bacon Tennyson
" " Von Hartmann " Professor
Bo wen " Sir John Herschel " Kant

Chapter XXI 159

The sole alternatives : deity and spiritualism,
or else
zero and Nihilism Encounter to-day the old odium
"

iheologicum, and opprobrium scientice Science graded

de- "

by refusal to investigate every disputed

scientific question Its only enemy is a priori which
" is
y

the refusal of the will to believe,and the refusal to

investigate lest it will believe Psychology does not "

properly deal with how fast nerve sensations travel,

or how far apart pin-prickscan be distinguishedas one
or two ; but what it is that travels,and what it is that
perceives Shall philosophyand science pretend to deal
"

with mentality and life,and yet not know, or seek to

learn,what they are ; and should science not wait to
argue about them until it does know ? Behind the "

nebula is either God or nothing From nothing nothing "

can proceed If the psychism of man

"
exists,then we
know that there must exist a greater psychism The "

'-
Spiritof the Universe '' It must be akin to our own "

Authorities Cited

Masson " Wordsworth " Emerson " Newton "

Le Conte " Professor James" Ladd

PART III

Chapter XXII . . .
'. .
*. . .167
Summary of Parts I. and The principlesof II. "

religion the outcome of spiritual revelation It has "

always been universal All rehgions embody the same "

principle Moral "and spiritual loftiness not confined

to any ^The materialistic
" ideas of the derivation of
and
religionfallacious, now abandoned Consequences "

of the ecclesiastical revolt in the sixteenth century The "

abandonment of continuous spirituahsm in favour of

"
natural law '- ; the result Failure of science to in-
vestigate "

due to a baseless a priori ^These fields outside "

the natural sciences Popular error as to attitude "

of
great teachers of science and philosophy

Authorities Cited

Luther " Romanes " Haeckel " Herbert Spencer

Chapter XXIII 173

The methods and of
acquisitions science ; the former
beyond all praise,the latter limited "
Scientific judg-
ment
changes with every decade " It does not prehend
com-

the principleson which it is founded " Ex-

 TABLE OF CONTENTS xv

rAGE

Chapter XXIII continued

"

amples cited Does touch the real or vital problems

" not
of life and mind, of the universe Even matics
mathe-
nor "

extremely limited Failure of scientific men "

largelydue to a desire to find a singlecause, for which

they do not go back far enough The data not in "

possession of physical science Intolerance wholly "

unjustifiable in present state of scientific knowledge "

Psychism the factor which alone will interpret the

universe "
Just as scientific as light,heat, electricity or

gravitation ^The problems become

"
simpleras the base
is broadened ^The greatest men " of science always
opposed to materialism or empiricism The advent of "

new sciences recently which make the solution clear ;

disappearance of the dark days of psychology which
prevailedthirtyyears ago

Authorities Cited

Flammarion Nus " " Kant " Sir W. Crookes "

Lord Kelvin Sir

"
John Herschel Lagrange
" "

Romanes " Herbert Spencer " Paul Janet Huxley " "

De Morgan

Chapter XXIV i8i

The new psychology Catalogue " of names of
authorities Great in
Britain,America, France, Italy,
Germany, etc. A victory and demonstration
" of the
higher over the lower ; a vindication of both philosophy
and science God's fatherhood
" and man's brotherhood
mutually dependent on each other ^The Hfe-studyof "

micro-organisms Their psychology "Romanes* "

change of view with larger knowledge His new "

treatise " A Candid Examination of ReUgion, "* to

oppose his earlier Candid Examination of Theism
--
'-"
"

His reasons for his former error His new studies His " "

final conclusion in favour of Theism, God, Spirit,

revelation and Materialists nearly all psychism "

miserable, though often unconscious of the cause "

-' Moral satisfactions '-'- insufi"cient The converse "

*'
among the spiritualists Self-sacrifice The least " "

importantthingdoes not happen except as God wills it -'

Authorities Cited

Long Hst at beginningof chapter; also Romanes "

Bmet " McCosh Wordsworth S. R. " " Crockett "

Max Miiller" The Author

Chapter XXV 191

Sectarian theologyin the lightof universal religion "

Results of '-
begrudging God His own universe," and
substituting Natural Law,'- for God's
-

ever-present
voUtion and control The fatal error of the belief that "

God worked once, long ago, to create, and will come

again, some time in the indefinite future,to judge ; and
meanwhile has left the universe to Nature,' as a -- "

substitute Sectarian creeds of this type have

"
never
xvi TABLE OF CONTENTS

Chapter XXV " continued

been reallybelieved by their sincere Christian followers,
but have nevertheless stood as barriers against any
defence on their part against materialism " Have indeed
"
allied the origin of churches
gods "' ; with it " ^The
idols representative only Absurdity of any other "

position Inherent beHef in and

"
knowledge of God
among primitivepeoples Always a spirit Psychology " "

of the Eskimo, and of other ancient American peoples "

The American race not derived, at least since the

glacialperiod,from the Eastern continent

Authorities Cited

Jesus " Le Bon "

Maya Codices " Dr Cyrus Thomas "

Captain Dennett, R.N. "

Parry " First Missionaries to
the Eskimo "
Newton " Lamarck " Sir John Herschel "

Romanes " Brinton

Chapter XXVI 199

Spiritualismthe substratum reUgion,but not
of
identical with it They often "
overlap each other "

Sources of both in the spiritual beyond Continuance "

of Ufe after death the basis of both Demonstrated by "

spiritualism applying scientific methods to the evidence

" Mankind immutably allied with spirituniversal and
eternal We are " here in a state of probation and
trainingfor a spiritualindividuaUty hereafter ^The "

alternative of belief in a future existence

Authorities Cited
Christ " Stewart and Tait Romanes
" " Sir John
Herschel " Lamarck " Lord Kelvin

Chapter XXVII 205

Popular error regarding modern writers who have
been assumed to teach empiricism Locke, Hume, "

Comte, John Stuart Mill, Huxley, Tyndall, Herbert

Spencer and of these not men ofHaeckel "
Majority
science totally
" misunderstood Locke
; he taught
Christianity, God, spirits and revelation,and a future
" "
life His attack
"
was against the innate principles
of Descartes, and for direct revelation The ancient "

Chinese philosophy identical with Locke's view of our

"-faculties" Hume's reduction to absurdity and
"

nihilism a joke on the defects of Locke

was and Berkeley
" Hume believed in God There can be no belief that "
"

there can be no belief '" Comte abandoned his atheism "

in favour of what Huxley called the worship of a

wilderness of apes John Stuart Mill carried his system "

to an inexplicabihty
" -
'-
of the whole, and surrendered
it there
Authorities Cited

Locke " Descartes " Leibnitz " Haeckel worth

^Words- "

"
Huxley " Hume Berkeley "
Churchill"
"

Morell " Mackintosh Frederic

"
Harrison " Comte "

St Simon " Mill -- Sir W. HamUton

xviii TABLE OF CONTENTS
PAGB

Chapter XXX 231

Spiritualismpursues the methods of science Sir "

W. Crookes' Presidential Address before the British

Association Professor De Morgan on
"

supernormal
phenomena Modern spiritualismhas never
"
ceased to
advance Persecution
" has not affected the movement
Men of science have recently taken it with
"

up
triumphant results " The French Royal Academy of
Sciences in 1831
of " The Dialectical Committee
London in The great Society for Psychical
1872 "

Research in 1882 Brief description of the latter "

"

The great change in the public and scientific attitude

since 1872 The investigationsof Sir W. Crookes
"
"

Rejected with contempt in 1872 by the Royal Society,

and twenty-five years later he was elected President of
the British Association for the Advancement of
"
Science " His remarkable address " I have nothing to
retract " I adhere to my already published statements "

Indeed I might add much thereto "

Authorities Cited
Professor De Morgan French Academy " " Dr
Carpenter Dialectic Committee " A. R. Wallace " "

Society for Psychical Research Sir W. Crookes " "

Quarterly Review Dr Huggins Sir Oliver Lodge " "

Chapter XXXI 240

The only scientific basis of
evolution is volition "

coincident
Spiritualism with universe controlled
a by a
psychism "

Theology threw away its charter when it

took up Nature as a substitute for God, whereby
"* God is still grudged His own "
universe But for this "

fatal error, there never could have been anything for

religion and science fight to about " When divine
volition,constantly operative, is granted, all diffi-
culties
disappear of themselves, and agnosticism
becomes a mere superstitionof credulity The only "

"
tenable theory is that of Lamarck, that there is an
intelligentpower which transcends nature, which was
before nature, and is independent of nature, and
controls nature to do its will "
and this is what we call
"
God
Authorities Cited
Herbert Spencer Romanes " " Sir John Herschel "

Lamarck "
Longfellow Olive " Schreiner " Professor
William James "
Jalalu'd-Din (author'stranslation)

PART IV

Chapter XXXII 245

Review of Parts I.,II.,and HI. Religion uniformly "

found among all peoples The cognitionof the co- ordinated

"

presence of the individual body, the

individual spirit, the spiritof nature, and the spirit of
 TABLE OF CONTENTS xix
PAGE

Chapter XX.XII" continued

the universe,intimate and inseparablewith all man- kind
"Atheism produces misery at heart among those
who claim to be atheists Religionsfundamentally the "

same As art was

"
repudiated by Christianity, because
it had become sacerdotal,so spiritualism was repudiated
by the Reformation because it had become sacerdotal "

** "
Natural causation became the common god of
materialism and sectarian theology Private Christians "

never believed at heart these doctrines ^The means of "

scientifically overcoming these fatal doctrines had to be

created Embryology, micro-psychology, the science
"

of the subconscious, comparative religions,biology,

anthropology, the whole of the scientific bases of true
psychology,had yet to be developed New microscopic, "

spectroscopicand chemical applianceshad to be devised

and perfected ^Time was required God was preparing
" "

to finallydestroy the power of matter over mind, by

means of the power of mind over matter The work has "

now been accomplished, for the first time in the history

of the world

Authorities Cited

Leibnitz Romanes" and " authorities previously

cited on these subjects

Chapter XXXIII . . . . . . .249

Testimony of able authorities, in letters to the Dia-

lectical
Society,in favour of the truth and importance
of spiritualphenomena The cosmical spiritualismof "

the universe The individual spiritualismof man

" "

The spiritualism of lower life-organisms Mediums " "

Huxley's second letter to the Dialectical Society "

George H. Lewes to the same Dr Davey, J. Garth "

Wilkinson, Sir Edwin Arnold and others to the same "

Miss A Goodrich-Freer on crystal vision Are crystal "

visions subjective or objective? Tyndall to Dia- lectical "

Society on presence at sittingsof a strongly

"
magnetic disturber Carpenter on unconscious "

"
cerebration TroUope on opinion of"Bosco that the
arts of legerdemain cannot imitate these phenomena "

Unconscious testimony of a great "* magician now

"

living Table tipping in answer

" to mental questions "

Poltergeists Importance of the study Sir William

" "

Crookes and his narrative of Katie King Her last ap-

pearance "

His work on the phenomena of spiritualism,

"

originallyrejectedby the scientific bodies which after- wards

made him their president His reafiirmation of "

the facts Florence Cook,

" Sir William Crookes'
scientific tests and methods Photographs of the "

materialised Katie King Spiritphotographs considered "

" Can the invisible and intangiblebe photographed ? "

Examples Analogies with other natural phenomena

" "

The mirage Elementary forces involved

" ^The "

phenomena of light and sound Luminous paints,in- visible "

end of solar spectrum " Modern views of matter

62
XX TABLE OF CONTENTS

Authorities Cited

Lewes "
Davey Wilkinson Crossland
" Sir " "

Edwin Arnold Simpson " A. Goodrich-Freer Earl " "

of Stanhope Burton "

Hockley Tyndall " " "

James "
Carpenter TroUope Bosco "
Seybert "
" "

Lewis " Sir W. Crookes Marmery Professor " "

Knott" The Author

Chapter XXXIV .265

Carlyle on miracles Evidence by converts " Christian
of the realityof supernormal manifestations of Eskimo
and other psychics How much do we know of the laws "

"
of nature as actual laws ? Have any deepest "

scientific individuals yet dived down to the foundations

of the universe, and gauged everything there ? '* "

"
These scientific individuals have been nowhere but
"
where we also are ^The power of custom ; philosophy "

is a continual battle against it The transcendental " "

Psychism among the Eskimo Angekoks converted to "

"
Christianity are steadfast in asserting that there is an
"
interference of some supernatural agency Crystal "

vision among the Eskimo " Personal narratives which

follow are intended
not to be startling, but are simple
examples of the various classes of phenomena to which
"
they relate " The catchword Magnetism as a -"
tute
substi-
" "
for an explanation ; also Hypnotism," gestion,"
Sug-
and the like " These are mere terms, like the
algebraic X, Y and Z, for
unexplained phenomena,
phenomena to be properly explained and designated
later on
Authorities Cited

Carlyle " Nevius " Dennett " Chinese Records "

Sahagun - " Greenland Missionaries

Chapter XXXV 270

Practical cases continued "
Crystalvision "
ance
Clairvoy-
Transferred
" mental power Crystal vision, as "

mentioned in the Bible Among the Eskimo ^The " "

remarkable case observed by Colonel James Smith

among the Red Indians, in what is now Eastern Ohio,
before the Revolutionary War Its effect on the "

Indians Manetohcoa, the old conjurer Crystal vision

"
"

among the Eastern Cherokees, reported by Mr James

Mooney of the U.S. Bureau of Ethnology " The fate
of Cherokee Confederate soldiers predicted Crystal "

vision among the Aztecs Tescatlipoca the god of "

crystalvision Among the ancient Mayas Its universal

" "

practiceto-day in Yucatan In Peru, in Northern Chile, "

among the Apaches Not difficult to acquire ^Miss " "

Goodrich-Freer 's discovery of a colony in England

which had developed it among themselves voyance
Clair- "

and
supernormal revelation Eph's bullet " "

'*
Was it a case of telepathy? Use of Planchette in "
"

China ^Dowsing among

" Western nations Exhaustive "

reports by Professor W. F. Barrett,F.R.S." The Divining

Rod Interpretationof the phenomena
"
Analogous to "
 TABLE OF CONTENTS xxi

Chapter XXXV continued "

other of subconscious
cases mental projection Cases cited "

"
Clairvoyance of the dying Clairvoyance of a dead "

brother by a dying boy who did not know that his brother
had died Case of fascination of a largefrog by a huge
"

rattlesnake ^The phenomena described ^The influence

" "

exercised by great commanders A river of command, "

Emerson calls it ^Wolseley on analogous power in "

miUtary commanders Spiritrappings ^Their connection " "

with other physical phenomena of spiritualism "

Professor Augustus De Morgan's experiments His "

scientific qualifications ^The preface to his wife's book "

-"
From
Matter to Spirit*' His remarkable "
experience
with a group of rappers Statement of the "
experienceof
a scientific friend

Authorities Cited

The Bible Col. James Smith President Roosevelt " " "

Manetohcoa U.S. Bureau of Ethnology ^The Cherokee

" "

Indian Report ^Mooney ^Daniel G. Brinton Tcheng- " " "

Ki-Tong President Martin Professor

" Barrett A. " "

Goodrich-Freer De Mortillet Reverend " Professor "

Father Roe F. Napier Denison Andrew Lang " " "

Professor Krafit-Ebing Professor Charcot L. A. " "

Sherman Frank R. Alderman" Sir William Crookes "

" Professor Barrett Jevons Marmery ^Mrs De Morgan " " "

" Susan Dabney Smedes " Lord Wolseley " R. W.

Emerson ^T. S. G. "
Dabney " ^Mrs McHatton-Ripley "

Professor De Morgan

Chapter XXXVI 293

Experiments continued Telepathy Acceptance "

by physical science ^The Hertzian Waves ^Wireless " "

telegraphy Telepathy from the livingas a difficulty

" to
be overcome, in allegedcommunications from the dead
" Means for overcoming the difficulty Inter jectors, "

accidental mis-statement, and cross-correspondences "

The system of cross-correspondencescarried on by the

Society for Psychical Research The alleged com-
municators "

so-called automatic
" The percipientsand .

writings Trance phenomena

" The subliminal self "
"

Abstract of certain cross correspondence records - "

Answers to questions as to the future The charges "

' " " ''

of malobservation
"
and lapse of memory sidered
con-
The scope
" and force of the objections
examined Same charges can " be made against all
human testimony If valid would destroy the "

practice of jurisprudence Multiple observation, "

and the recollected

effects on others present minimise
the importance of the objections ^Malobservation "

principallyapplicable where the attention has been

diverted Memory may drop matter
"
out, but cannot
add new matter, excepting by conscious fraud, under
cross-examination Poltergeistcase in Yucatan in the "

years about 1590 "Speaking like a parrot'-'John " "

L; Stephens'- report of the Yucatan poltergeist

xxii TABLE OF CONTENTS
PAGE

Authorities Cited

Myers" Dr Hodgson" Dr W. D.Bayley,S.P.R.

F. W. H.
" ^Mrs Piper Principal Graham Gurney Sidgwick " " " "

Mrs Verrall Journal S.P.R. Sir Oliver Lodge ^Miss" "

"

Goodrich-Freer John L. Stephens The Cura Don " "

Aguilar, of Yucatan ^D. G. Brinton Modern Mexico "

"

Chapter XXXVII .303

Accurate by a previsionof death soldier months
before, with abstract of evidence General John B. "

Gordon's chapter on premonitions The case of Wm. "

Shuler, Co. I., ii8th Penna. Volunteers, killed at the

Battle of the Wilderness, 5th May 1864 Accurate "

prevision; saw the place pictured months before "

"
Will be killed in first battle, and that early in the
"
fight The spot was " far beyond, in the midst of a
dense wilderness, and miles within the Confederate
"
lines Later on" I have just five days more to live ^' "

"
Before the charge, Yes, just beyond those works, in
''
that little cluster of woods, on the hill (pointingwith
"
his finger), I shall fall I see the spot ; I know it well *-* "

How
" line of advance of the whole charge was deflected,
so that Shuler 's company came to cross this hill His "

death " Verifications from militaryorders and move-

ments

reported in the U.S. Ofiicial War Records, not

published till after the publication of Dr Layman's
original narrative The case of Captain McKavett " "

Monterey The case narrated by General Oglethorpe

" "

The Battle of MaJplaquet ^The recent case of William "

the
Terriss, well-known actor

Authorities Cited

Dr A. Layman General John B. Gordon ^W. Wj " "

Shuler J. L. Smith's "

History of the Corn Exchange
Regiment Dr S. Compton Smith Dr E. R. Chamber-
" lain "

General
"

Taylor General Worth Captain Henry " "

McKavett West Point Military Register Boswell

"
" "

Washington Irving Samuel Johnson General " "

Oglethorpe Frederick Lane Frank Podmore" London " "

Times " Various witnesses cited

Chapter XXXVIII 316

Unpublished experiments continued Changing "

weights Slate writings Automatic "

writings purport-
ing "

to be from spiritsof the dead Old friend of the "

author His experiences Hough, the boy medium

"
" "

Experiments of Sir William Crookes, in England "

Mr P.'s experiments with spring-scale; weights varied

at call His slate-writingexperiments J. K. writes
"
"

on small, closed and sealed slates,in three colours "

The automatically written, original record of many

friends and relatives in the spiritworld, by the hand of
Mr P.'s wife Character of the communications " "

Table tipping and rapping with same psychic Her "

early death Testimony of surviving husband Final " "

loss of control
 TABLE OF CONTENTS xxiii

Authorities Cited
The author and Mr P. "
Hough King " Katie " Sir
William Crookes " Slade "
John King (Morgan) " ceedings
Pro-
S.P.R.

Chapter XXXIX . . . . . . .325

"
Automaticwriting experiments continued Inter- "

'""
jectors suddenly appearing Evidential matter " "

Test of genuineness of the P. Record Character of the "

communication Original in possession " of the author

by bequest of Mr P. Mr P.'s testimony regarding the "

personal value of the communications His warning "

" "
against consulting mediums for information "

How the sittings closed Inter jector appears in a "

Hodgson sittingwith Mrs Piper I was a d d idiot "" "

"
"

" Inter jectorin one of Dr Bay ley'ssittings A sister "

(see page 295)

Authorities Cited

Mr P. " Dr Hodgson " Mrs Piper " ^Miss B. "

Hudson " Dr Bayley

Chapter XL 330
Planchette case of automatic writing,in which an

inter]ector appeared to narrate an irrelevant tragedy "

Testimony of Mr Charles Morris, of the S.P.R. "

Original record made at the time, by Mr Ford, one of

the sitters ; originalplanchette record still preserved "

Young girlappears with narration of persecution and

violent death Totally unknown "to all the sitters "

Refers them to the sisters of the President of the Penna.

R.R. Co." The result

Authorities Cited

Charles Morris "

Cope "

Leidy "

John Ford " Miss

Annie McDowell " Miss Adelaide Thompson " Miss
Annie Thompson.
Chapter XLI 334
Experiments Trumpet continued
mediums " "

Further experiments in prevision Veridical dreams "

"

Experiment of Rev. Thomas W. lUman with a trumpet

medium, narrated by himself Discovery, by message "

from deceased wife, of a surviving husband going into

intemperance, and who was reformed in consequence "

The same trumpet medium afterwards in Philadelphia "

Dr Layman's conversation with Dr Holcomb, deceased,

received in a lighted room Experience of a transient "

visitor to Philadelphia with the same trumpet

medium Three "veridical dreams before confinement,
made comprehensible and verified by the birth of the
child a week or more afterwards

Authorities Cited

De Morgan " Rev. Thomas W. lUman

Dr Layman " "

Dr Holcomb " Three Ladies personally known to the

Author
xxiv TABLE OF CONTENTS
PAGB

Chapter XLII 339

Reluctance to relate supernormal experiences "

When this is removed they are found to be general "

Materialisations Common "

opinion that doctors are

materialistic is an
or error ; when atheistic
the " It
veneer is removed
the reverse is found to be the case "

Dr Bayley's paper before a medical society How it "

was received The dean of a medical

"

collegenarrates
one supernormal case A sudden change among the "

doctors, and dozens of cases were narrated, until after

three o'clock a.m., when the meeting adjourned with
many others seeking to narrate their own, also "

Materiahsing stances " ^Two members of the S.P.R.

describe an inexplicable dematerialisation " The
author narrates a similar case which he cannot explain "

The medical professionand immortahty Several appari- "

tional cases of the dead

Authorities Cited
Sir W. Crookes" Dr Bayley" Dr Schofield" Dr
Dudley, Dean " ^The Author Ridgway's Magazine
" "

Census of physicians " Professor Barrett T. A. Trollope "

" F. W. H: Myers "

Lady Gore Booth "
Society for
PsychicalResearch

Chapter XLIII 350

Some possibleexplanation of materialising
pheno-
mena
" of material
The forms have been sought
sources
to be found in the
atmosphere, from void space, from
the personality of the medium, or from that of those
present Our popular conception of void
"

space
erroneous The luminiferous
" ether Its constitution "

considered Only differs from material substance

"
in its
lack of gravitation Its enormous density, giving a "

"
bursting pressure,"says Sir John Herschel, of eleven
billion pounds per square inch " How its density has
been determined " Free ether and bound ether Under "

"
certain circumstances agglomerates," to some extent,
with tangiblematter free ether of space harnessed " The
for working electrical
machines and dynamos Tesla "

says we will soon get it directly from space Franklin "

accompHshed this by his kites Could disembodied "

spirits(granting such) find framework in living and a

agglomerate "-
"
sym.pathising friends,and could they
with this even an infinitesimal fraction of the surround-
ing
bound ether,there would be far more tangibihtyand
weight than could possibly be required Reference "

**
topreceding chapter on Invention," as supernormal "

'-'- "
Perhaps this invention has been already made,
beyond our normal limits A dim recognitionof such "

-* "
a hypothesis in the nomenclature of spiritualistic
phenomena
Authorities Cited
Sir John Herschel " Sir Oliver Lodge " Fresnel "

Tesla " Franklin Sir " W. Crookes " Herbert Spencer

" Lord Kelvin
xxvi TABLE OF CONTENTS

Chapter XLVI " continued

worked the table tipping Brought back experiences "

of the War of the Rebellion What he claimed to have "

been, and how he came to know the author Was a "

coloured ammunition teamster in Longstreet'scorps in

the Antietam Campaign of 1862 His message, to keep "

up the
experiments, Occupied a couple
was worthless "

of hours in telling his story Another case ; non- "

evidential book of sermons, but from what source could

they have been dehvered verbatim to a young girl?

Authorities Cited

John Steefa" The Author

Chapter XL VII 376

Visions of the sane "
Apparently akin to crystal
vision Described
"
by Galton and others Differ from "

"
visions of the insane,in that they are not fixed ideas,"'
and do not dominate the personaUty of the observer "

They are seen as externahsed visions Their brilliancy "

and actions Conversations "

go on They are not con-trollable "

by the will or belief of the observer Cases "

narrated The author's experiences Do not reproduce

" "

lapsed memories ; are intelligible and coherent Do "

not embody prevision, revelation or, apparently,

spiritualism
Authorities Cited

Galton " A patientof the author's " The Author

Chapter XLVIII 383

The psychology of religious conversion Its basis in "

the subconscious department of the mind In con-

nection, "

apparently, with some higher source The "

subconscious described Its connection with the "

normal consciousness The phenomena of crystal

"

vision linking these departments together

due to
temporarily Rehgious conversion supernormal, in that
"

it is often opposed to heredity,to will,to experience,to

association and to self-interest The " subconsciousness
intelligently active during coma " The organising
power works during unconsciousness "
Examples of
conversion in author's personal experience

Authorities Cited
Professor WilHam James " the Author " Dr J. F. C.
^^
Hecker" Dr R. H. Crooke, M.R.C.S." Child ages
Pilgrim-
-'

Chapter XLIX 388

Thesumming up by Mrs De Morgan of the Bible
evidence for spiritualismof the types known to-day "

Her statements regarding the Word of God in the Bible

"
They have lost their originalmeaning The root- "

meanings of the word in the originallanguages Its "

 TABLE OF CONTENTS xxvii

Chapter XLIX " continued

use with meanings confirmed
thoseby the record "

Emanation, influx, inspiration The audible voice,the "

"
impelhng influence by writing, by vision quiring
En- " "

"
the Lord
at When " the influence failed to
come to Elisha he called for a minstrel The Word of "

the Lord, in the New Testament " The physico-psychical

means employed by Elisha in raisingthe dead child "

The employed by Jesus Laying on of hands

means "
"

Mighty spiritual works inhibited by unbelief The "

phenomena at Pentecost The construction of the "

" "
ephod, and the Urim and Thummim Their uses "
"

Priests not required for their use The incident of a "

"
misused modern theology ; children who sit round
and sing hymns about blood and wrath and damnation
"
with the utmost good humour Le Bon on religion; "

the master of all human agencies Loss of' religion; "

the most important event that could ever occur "

Religion alone allows of human happiness Mrs De "

Morgan connects the spiritualphenomena of the Bible

with
our own at the present time, and demonstrates
their identity. Mutual service between the occupants of
the seen and the unseen Sir Oliver Lodge's statement in "

the Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research,

"

June 1909 Citation from the poem

" Abou Ben Adhem '-

Authorities Cited
Professor De Morgan ^Mrs De Morgan " " ^Various books
of the Bible cited at length The Apostle "

John Elisha "

"

Le Bon The Word " of God Sir OUver "

Lodge Leigh "

Hunt

Chapter L 397
General consideration of the subject " The phenomena
practicallyconceded by the very authorities popularly
supposed to deny theories them
have "

Antagonistic
all broken down in the science The light of recent "

criteria of truth Volumes could be filled with personal

"

"
narratives of supernormal phenomena The ness
rare- "

of communication between the two worlds,'- says

"
Garth Wilkinson, is to me one of the greatest miracles ;
a proof of the economic wisdom, the supreme ment,
manage-
the extraordinary statesmanship of the
-'
Almighty "
Huxley's position as to a choice between
" "
absolute materialism and absolute idealism John "

" "
Stuart Mill's cul de sac of inexplicability Herbert "

Spencer's concession,in his last paper, that our con-

sciousness
"
has been individualised and specialised'-'
"

" "
Dr W. B. Carpenter on unconscious cerebration "

His abstract presented to the Dialectical Society Its "

"
remarkable conclusion : Immediate insight,which in
man's highestphase of existence,will not only supersede
the laborious operations of his intellect, but will reveal
to him truths and gloriesof the unseen, which the
*
intellect alone can see but as through a glassdarkly "* '

"
" Pilate's question, What is truth ? The criteria "
"

of truth ^Leibnitz first pointed out -' -*

"
universality
xxviii TABLE OF CONTENTS

PAGE

Chapter L "
continued

and --necessity" "

The three criteria of truth as

presented by President McCosh Self-evidence

; ;

Necessity Universality Discussion of the above

; "
"

Transcendentalism alone embraces all the above "

Animism and the world-soul considered "

Certain

constant phenomena seem to point, in certain to

cases,

surviving and intelligent spirits of the dead first,

;

these uniformly claim to be such, and there

appearances

to be no sufficient motive, if not true, for such

appears
universal lying secondly, the phenomena of prevision
;

and prophecy, which seem to be of necessity intelligent

and personal and, thirdly, the well-known phantasms
;
of the living, in which the intelligent psychical ality
person-
of those living appear to others at a distance, who

are also living

Be the hypotheses or final determinations what they
the facts are so numerous and so authentic that
may,
the time for their dismissal with an epithet has for ever

by The results of personal investigation by

gone "

capable observers pointed out "

No vein of treasure on

this earth so rich, and none secured with so little labour

" "
"
Lord Tennyson's lines on The Ghost in Man

Authorities Cited

Garth Wilkinson Huxley John Stuart Mill

" " "

Herbert Spencer Dr W. B. Carpenter Pontius

"
"

Pilate Walt Whitman Berkeley Locke Professor

" " "
"

Bo wen "
Leibnitz "
Carlyle "
M cCosh "
Shakespeare "

J. C. Harris "
Tennyson

Index 407
 SPIRIT AND MATTER

CHAPTER I

PSYCHOLOGY AS A SCIENCE

If the time is ever to come in the reUgioushistory

of the human race when what may be called God's
Science of Man is to supersede theology^ which is
man's Science of God, that time is already here.
Systems have been built syllogisms con-
up, structed,

upon false or partialpremises, now monstrate

de-
to have been such, both in theology and
the natural sciences,which have involved mankind
in mental and fallacies
spiritual of incalculable evil
to the past, present and future of the race. The
data are now at hand to change all this ; God's own
good time has come, for the theologians, and for the
advances of science for men, and the followers of
science,and it has been found that these lines of
advance are converging lines,and paths of the old
battlefields are destined very soon to unite in one

broad highway, with the

spiritualand divine ap-
proaching
from one direction and man's pyschicaland
human advancing from the other, so that the grim
conflicts of old will cease, not only in the Christian
religion,and among Christian peoples, but in all
forms of religion, and among all religious
peoples.
The broad lines of conflict are now seen to have
been erroneous, highest men
among the
of science,
philosophy and religion.As the knowledge of these
momentous facts sinks downward until it is finally
felt and recognisedby all,we can foresee the vast
shifting of human motives to higher planes,and the
 4 SPIRIT AND MATTER

entire reconstruction of lower ideals and practices,

until we can realise what Herbert Spencer, in one of
his latest papers. Feelingversus laid down,
Intellect^
and which precisely coincided with Professor Shaler
of Harvard Universityin his Interpretationof Nature
C' Key to Education ") ; and is as follows : "

"^Mind properlyinterpretedis coextensive with

consciousness : all parts of consciousness are parts
of mind. Sensations and emotions are parts of con-
sciousness,
and so far from being its minor com-
ponents

they are its major components. That part

which we ordinarily ignorewhen speaking of mind
is its essential part. The emotions are the masters,
the intellect is the servant. Considered in respect . . .

of their fitness for life, individual and social, those in

whom the altruistic sentiments predominate are far
superior to those who,
perception with powers of
and highestkinds, join anti-social
reasoningof the
feelings unscrupulous egoism and
"
disregard of
fellow-men. As implied above, this undue
...
faith
in teachingis mainly caused by the erroneous ception
con-

of mind. Were it fullyunderstood that the

emotions are the masters and the intellect the
servant, it would be seen that little can be done by
improving the servant while the masters remain improved.
un-

(^Improvingthe servant does but givethe

masters more power of achievingtheir ends.'Q
And on this fundamental fallacywas based all
the dogmatism and false inference of the syllogistic
theologyand inferential natural science of the past.
Professor William James, Professor of Philosophy
in Harvard University,in his Hibbert Foundation
Lectures in England, Varieties of Religious Experience y

says of this pervertedtheology:

''
When I was a boy, I used to think that the
closet-naturalist must be the vilest type of wretch
^^ii
*
under the surelythe systematictheologi-
sun. But ans
are the closet-naturalists of the deity,even in
Captain Mayne Reid's sense. What is their deduc-
tion
of metaphysicalattributes but a shuffling and
matching of pedantic dictionary-adjectives, aloof
from morals, aloof from human needs, something
6 SPIRIT AND MATTER

never knew or heard of natural science,ethics,

''
pohticaleconomy, or elsewhere,"must necessarily
have made of Christ's doctrines and teachings. Is it
any wonder that, armed as they were, and solid
under their coats of mail,they could say ? "

"
I stood up in my pulpithigh
And measured God's righthand.
And hurled the lightningsof His wrath
''
Across a godlessland !

I will quote, in order to show the vast change

which has
recently taken placein the conflict between
theology and religion, from one of the papers by the
Rev. Washington Gladden, D.D., LL.D. in ^'The
Great Religionsof the World,'* containinga series
of papers by Professor Giles (Cambridge),Professor
Davids (University College, London), Professor Ross
(samecollege), Oscar Mann (Orientalist, Royal Library,
Berlin),Sir A. C. Lyall,K.C.B., G.C.I.E. (Councilof
Secretary of State for India), Frederic Harrison,
Rev. M. Gaster,Ph.D. (ChiefRabbi of the Sephardi
Communities of England) ; and others. Published by
Harper Brothers,London and New York, September
1 90 1. I can only make the briefest extracts ; the

paper is entitled The Outlook forChristianity.

^'
The Christian doctrine has been greatlysimpli- fied.
The elaborate creeds of a former day are dis- appearing.
The metaphysicalpuzzles,in which so
many minds were once entangled,are swept away.
It is now well understood, among those who are

the recognised leaders of Christian thought,that the

essence of Christianity is personal loyalty to the
Master and obedience to His law of love. Such a

conceptionprepares the way for great unities and

co-operations."
past century has been a period of theo-
logical
*'
The
agitationand upheaval in Protestant Chris-
tendom.
The progress of physicalscience,the use
of the evolutionary philosophy,and the development
of Biblical criticism have kept the theologiansbusy,
with the work of reconstruction.'*
'*
It cannot be doubted the RomanthatCathoHc
Church,as a in the growing
whole,is sharingliberally
 PSYCHOLOGY AS A SCIENCE 7

lightof this
day. That the discipline
new of the
. . .

Church is graduallychanging becoming more mild "

less arbitrary
and rational, and despotic can hardly "

be doubted/'
''
The old theologyemphasised the sovereigntyof
God in such a way as to make it appear that what was

central in Him was will " His determination to have

' '
His own way. His mere good pleasure was the
decisive element in His action. This theology was
the apotheosisof will. The hard fact was disguised
and softened in many ways, but it was always there
"
was the nerve of the doctrine. The later ceptions
con-

emphasise the righteousnessof God more

than His
power. His justiceis not chieflyHis
determination to have His own way ; it is His
determination do
right,to recognisethe moral
to
constitution which He has given to His children,
and to conform to that in His dealings with them.''
^'
This is a tremendous change ; none more

radical or revolutionary has taken place in any of the

sciences. To be rid of theories which requiredthe
damnation of non-elect infants and of all the heathen ;
which imputed the guiltof our progenitors to their off-
spring
; and which proclaimed an kingdom of eternal
darkness,ruled by an evil potentate, whose ubiquity
was but littleshort of omnipresence,whose resources

pressed hard upon omnipotence, and whose access to

human souls implied omniscience is a great deliver-
ance. "

The entire aspect of religion has changed with- in

the memory of many who will read these words,
we are livingunder a different sky and breathinga
different atmosphere."
''
It may be assumed that man is not only a
political, but also a religious animal ; that religion is
an everlasting reality.Some kind of religionmen
have always had and will always have ; things
unseen and eternal enter into their lives,and will
always form an integralpart of their experience."
''
It is through the spirit that we know Him ; and
He is the Father of spirits ; His character is revealed
to us in the life and words of Jesus ; our relation to
Him is shown us in the filial trust of Jesus,and our
8 SPIRIT AND MATTER

relation to one another springsfrom this relation.

The two truths of the divine Fatherhood and the
human Brotherhood are the central truths of
Christian theology to-day. This has never before
been true. Men have been always callingGod
Father, but in their theories they have been making
Him monarch. He was as much of
Father a as He
could consistentlybe with His functions as an solute
ab-
sovereign. The Sovereigntywas the dominant
fact ; the Fatherhood was subordinate. All this
is changed. It is believed to-day that there can be
no sovereigntyhigher than no law fatherhood,and
strongerthan love.*'
This is a magnificent of the religious
presentation
sweep which has been passingover the old dogmatic
theologyof the past. The concludingwords which I
''
have quoted, It is believed to-day,"are true ; it is
indeed so believed,is becoming universally so lieved.
be-
But is this belief to be a matter of faith
alone,so that, as it came it may go, or of scientific
and revelational demonstration ? If the former it is
but to follow our higherethics of to-day, our wider
civilisation,
our broader socialistic integration,to,
in fact,advance only with man's experimentalad-
vancement.
This will be great,but it will be not so

much heroic as inevitable. But is it also demon-

stratively
and directlydivine ? " if so it can be
proven, and I may
sosay, if it is the latter (thatis,
scientifically and revelationally demonstrable)then
it will stand immutable as the eternal hills.

The
purpose of these chaptersis to bringforward,
in a connected series,the changes which have taken
place in the scientific and philosophical world garding
re-

those problems and demonstrations, and

the accumulated evidence, concerning what has
been long known in a vague and indefinite sense as

psychology. Partlyby reason of the lack of means

for investigation, or the ineffectiveness of the instru-
ments
used, never until recentlyhas psychology
been actually reached,except by worthless and ever-
shiftinghypotheses,co-ordinated here and there with
 PSYCHOLOGY AS A SCIENCE 9
an isolated by
fact,misleading, its want of connection
as to what psychologyreallywas, or what it could
be, and of late has been actuallydemonstrated
to be.
The very bases of demonstrable psychologywere
lacking,so long as science had not created the sub-
sciences of embryology, comparative anthropology,
the deeper principles of the development of living
forms, the psychism of microscopicforms, and the
science of comparativereligions, as well as other and
kindred branches of science,which are now open and
available for all.
In the absence of these means of investigation
and demonstration, physicalscience fought shy of
everythingwhich took on the guiseof superstition,
so that the field
being narrow, and the means of re-
search

small,refugewas taken in an a prioriwhich

denied everythingapparentlysupernormal without
investigation, and only conceded, even for examina-
tion,
those few physicalfacts and phenomena which
were obvious,at first sighteven, to all. As physical
science continued its advance, even this physical
realm became too great to be dealt with as a whole,
and scientific specialists arose, with ever-narrowing
specialties, and, as the whole visible field had been far
too small to even enable physicalscience as a whole
to grasp even an infinitesimal fraction of the whole,so
now the specialists, by stillmore narrowingand split-
ting
up their subjects, relegated much that had already
been gainedto doubt and negation, and the scientific
world became peopled with pseudo-scientists who
''
taught sectarian science,'* just as in the religious
world has been the case in all ages, and with all
where
religions, narrow theological creeds took the
place of broader religiousknowledge, and the
element
spiritual practically disappeared,to a great
extent,from both.
When a sect selected a certain number of its texts
from the Hebrew
scriptures,the New Testament,
the Koran, the Zend-Avesta, the Tao Teh King, the
Vedas,the Buddhistic or other scriptures,
in elevating
these texts into dogma the remainder of the books
lo SPIRIT AND MATTER

were ignored,and partial

relatively theologies
usurped
the placeof universal religions.
And in like manner, when physicalscience oc-
cupied

itself with certain narrow lines and texts,

the broader fields became but mere phantasms, or
dim and unsearched areas, in which to search was
useless and superstitious ; and hence simple denial,
agnosticism, infidelity and empiricismtook the only
place,and each set of teachers,denying everything
taught by other sets of teachers,and refusing
to in-
vestigate
for themselves " indeed unfitted to investi-
gate
by the narrowness of their own specialisms " stituted
sub-
a broad and sweeping a prioriand ,
denied all
further and greater knowledge in the name of the
scintilla of alreadyobserved and lesser knowledge,and
so passed on, smilingand superstitious themselves,
in the feeling (forit was but a feeling) that because
the others did not know the trifling particulars which,
in their minuteness,they did know, the others,in the
same proportion, knew nothingelse,by reason of not
knowing that.
As Romanes confesses,they had been too much
immersed in merely physicalresearch.
There is not a plough-boy who does not know
that there are whole realms of knowledge outside
** *'
merely physicalresearch ; everybody knows it,
'' "
because there could be no merelyphysical research
at all unless there was something not physical,or
superphysical, to determine and carry on, or even to
initiate, the researching.
^^
As Huxley says, The more completely the
materialistic positionis admitted,the easier it is to
show that the idealistic position is unassailable, if the
idealist confines himself within the limits of positive
knowledge."
Again, speaking of Berkeley,this writer (on the
popularmisapprehensionof whom so much of modern
''
materialism relies) says : The key to all philosophy
lies in the clear comprehension of Berkeley'spro- blem
" which is neither more nor less than one of the
'

shapes of the greatestof all questions,What are the

'
Unfits of our faculties ? And it is worth any amount
 PSYCHOLOGY AS A SCIENCE ii

of trouble comprehend the exact nature of the

to
argument by which Berkeley arrived at his results,
and to know by one's own knowledge the great truth
which he discovered that the honest and rigorous
"

followingup of the argument which leads us to

materialism inevitablycarries us beyond it."
"
And he adds, in conclusion, And therefore,if I
were obligedto choose between absolute materialism
and absolute idealism, I should feel compelledto accept
the latter alternative/'
And Locke, another of the authorities upon which
materialism was mistakenlycontent to rest,is equally
''
emphatic. Says Locke, Bodies, by our senses, do
not afford us so clear and distinct an idea of active
power, as we have from reflection on the operations
of our minds. Of thinking,body affords us no idea
at all,it is only from reflection that we have that.
Neither have we from body any idea of the beginning
" ''
of motion and ; adds, I judge it not amiss to
direct our minds to the consideration of God and
spirits,for the clearest idea of active powers.'' And
of the faculties of the mind, as appliedto what he calls
''
reason and revelation, he says, God having fitted
men with faculties and means to discover,receive,
and retain truths, according as they are em- ployed."

The basis of
psychologyis the transcendental, the
superphysical, and this is the ultimate,the dominant,
the controlling, and the ever and everywhere present,
and yet materialism,or empiricism,which modern
psychology has for ever overthrown, not only has
taken no account of this,but has either damned it
with an a prioriassumption without investigation,
classing it as a superstition not to be even considered,
or else has denied not only its importance but even its
existence.
As a I quote the following
type of this attitude,
''
from Dr W. A. Hammond's Sleep and Its rangements
De-
publishedin 1869.
*'
contend for the doctrine of constant
Writers who
mental regard the brain as the organ or tool
activity
of the mind, a structure which the mind makes use
12 SPIRIT AND MATTER

of in order to manifest itself. Such a theoryis certain

to lead them into and
difficulties, is contrary to all the
teaching of physiology. The full discussion of this
questionwould be out of placehere ; I will therefore
only state that this work is written from the stand-
point
of regardingthe mind as nothingmore than the
result of cerebral action. Just as a good liver
secretes good bile,a good candle givesgood light, and
good coal a good fire, so does a good brain givea good
mind. When the brain is quiescentthere is no mind.'*
This is the view which Haeckel takes in his
** ''
Riddle of the Universe."
hypothetical This
''

spiritworld,''he says, supposed to bewhich is

entirelyindependent of the material universe,is
purelya productof poeticimagination; the same may
belief in the immortaUty of the
be said of the parallel
soul."
'' '*
We must he
therefore," says, in
distinguish
the substance of the soul the characteristic psychic
energy which is all
perceive(sensation,
we tion,
presenta-
J

volition, etc.),and the psychicmatter,which is

the inseparablebasis of its activity that is, the "

livingprotoplasm. Thus, in the higher animals the

' '
matter of the soul is a part of the nervous system ;
in the lower nerveless animals and plantsit is a part
of their multicellular protoplasmicbody ; and in the
unicellular protists it is a part of their protoplasmic
cell body. In this manner we are brought once more
to the psychicorgans, and to an appreciation of the
fact that these material organs are indispensable for
the action of the soul ; but the soul itself is actual "

it is the sum total of their physiologicalfunctions."

This, of course, was rushing into the realms of
agnosticismwhere even the angels,like Herbert
Spencer, feared to tread ; but Spencer just before
he died threw a flashlightray through these dark
areas, conceded that the consciousness was mentally
ele-
"
derived or sheared off from that Infinite
and Energy which
Eternal transcends both our

knowledge and our imagination," and could only infer

that at death its elements again lapse into the same
Infinite and Eternal Energy.
14 SPIRIT AND MATTER

piricism, or any hypothesis or theory of a self-

operative or merely physical nature, and it is in this

broad sense that the term is now used in science, and

the sense in which I shall use the term in these

chapters. Of all these Greek definitions, the most

obviously applicable are those manifestations which

at first sight to fall into, be, in

appear or some normal
super-
connected with what loosely
manner, goes
*' **
by the name of psychic,*' or spiritualistic/'
 CHAPTER II

ARGUMENT FOR SPIRITUALISM

It isby no means certain that the great body of

phenomena which go under the name ofpsychicare
due to what is commonly known as spirituaHsm "

that is to say, the direct activityand presence of

of individuals once
spirits livingbut now dead. In-
deed
spiritualists themselves do not make any such
assertion, (^rthere are whole classes of phenomena
of this kindwhich clearlyappertainto the operations
of a universallydiffused consciousness,pervading
space, and extended through unlimited time, and
which constitutes unquestionablythe source of life
and mind J Among these classes of phenomena are
those of simpleclairvoyance, transcendental ness,
conscious-
crystalvision,telepathy,somnambulism, alter- nating
personalities, and the like. Midway between
these and individual spiritualism lie the phenomena
of phantasms of the living, apparitions, or perceptions

of those dying at a distance,to friends or others,the

facts of so-called possession,witchcraft, vampirism,
much of the jphenomena of mediumship, reading of
sealed letters, a portionof the phenomena of auto- matic
writing,writingor producing picturesin the
dark, mental projections,veridical dreams, some
part of prophecy, discoveryof missingobjects, such
as wills,deeds, money, dead bodies,etc.,etc.
Outside of these classes of phenomena, we have a
great mass of evidence going directly to establish the
facts of individual spiritualism in certain cases.
It is needless to say that spiritualists themselves
are the least dogmatic of all peoplewith reference to
these various phenomena. That they hold to the
validityof the facts familiarly known to them with
15
i6 SPIRIT AND MATTER

the same tenacitywith which one holds to the per-

sonahtyof his wife and children around him, or to the
relative hardness of a stone which has bruised him,
or of a shower which has wetted him, is not surprising ;
but even the most capable mediums or go-betweens
arealways ready to concede that they do not under-
stand
the phenomena which manifest themselves
through their personality, and they are, in fact,the
most humble and anxious
of all to learn from other
^^^
investigators
concerningthese very things. Should,
the solution of these psychic problems be
finally,
found lie,not with the individual presence of the
to
spirits of the dead, but with that far greater and
"
higherspiritualityin which we live and move and
have our being,''they will rest there quite content,
feeling that their basis of faith has been broadened,
while every essential truth has been preserved.
The scientifically acceptedprinciple of thresholds
of consciousness itself presupposes a great universal
ocean of that which is allied to and developsunder
favourable circumstances into consciousness ; and
psychologyis making its greatestadvances alongthese
lines,but as yet they do not explain, or even tend to
explain,spiritualism as a whole, in the absence of
individual spiritsof those once living, but they lead
up to, and often connect, these phenomena with other
known psychicalphenomena in a most surprising
manner.

Had science turned its attention to these pheno-

mena
with even a fraction of the energy and study
which such transcendental facts demanded, we would
have advanced beyond our far
present limits of
knowledge ; but, instead,it has chosen to simply
ignore the facts as inconvenient,and to build an
elaborate and many-storeyededifice resting upon no

foundation,not even one of sand, and now it must

laboriously begin as it has alreadybegun to take
" "

down stone by stone and column

this splendidedifice,
by column, and rebuild it anew upon the immutable
and eternal foundations of God and nature. What a

royal palace of truth we shall then see erected,and

help to erect,for in that great work of selection of
 ^^^
ARGUMENT FOR SPIRITUALISM "

17
material as well as of construction
humblest the
student and can observer
become a collaborator with

ythe most trained and skilful builders. And the in-

visible
powers of nature will direct the work to its final
culmination. The
invisible powers of nature! Is V
not thought an invisible power which sets the whole
mechanism of life and civilisation into action ? Is
not the mind an invisible power, which controls
matter driver controls a team of mules ?
as a Is not
life an invisible power, which turns back the processes
of inorganicchemistry,and builds up fabrics which
only endure while life lasts,being built in spiteof
decay and breakdown, and then, as soon as life
ceases shall
"
we say departs ? Cleaves the
" whole dead
structure to fall back into simplechemical products,
away from the life-built organisation, and with
putridityand dissolution, justas occurs with the dead
material of the chemical laboratory. Non- vital
decomposition after death presupposes vital com-
position
''
before death. And is not that great Spirit
of the Universe,'* as Romanes, the pupil,co-worker,
and follower of Darwin, called it, that which is nearest
akin to our own psychism as he described it that
" "

organising power independent of matter and superior

to organicnature and its laws as Lamarck" described
it" also an invisible power ?
? S^^'
''
What, indeed,does the term .'*
nature signify
It means that which is born. that
\What is there '^'

'
ever was born without a parent
?J)The problem of
nature is the problem of mind, and the problem of ^
mind is the problem of life. Mind is the potter,the t/
body is the clay.
We are, it appears, on the very verge of the dis-
covery
of
greaterintegration,
a as Professor Richet,
the learned
President of the Society for Psychical
Research, believes,which shall include all the
psychicalclasses of phenomena which I have men- tioned,

but which shall yet not itself be any single

one of them. It will include spiritualism, it will
include clairvoyance, and telepathy, and prevision,
but yet not be any one of these things. It will har-
monise,
and surround, and interpret all these mysteries
 i8 SPIRIT AND MATTER

and many more ; and this is the trend of psychology

to-day,and is the apology for these chapters.
To quote the burning words of Sir William
Crookes, in his address as President of the British
only nine
Association, years ago, and in the maturity
of his wondrous powers as one of the world's great
scientific leaders : "I should preferto say that in
life I see the promise and potency of all forms of
matter/'
It is certain that no of
possibleintegration the
physical or material,in any sense in which these
terms have ever been used or recognisedby science,
could cover more than an infinitesimal instant in the
illimitable course of time, and not even so much of
matter or of space, and nothingat all of force. It is
an axiom of dynamics that nothing merely physical
can start and
itself, of
philosophythat nothingwith-out
mind can produce mind J In fact,evolution itself
demands this as its very first premise. As Tyndall
''
expressedit, Between mind and matter there exists
an intellectually impassablechasm.'' The vast body
of psychical facts which so-called spiritualistshold can
only be explainedon a psychicalbasis. The formal
argument on behalf of modern spiritualism may be
stated as follows :"

/"^ Up to the time of the ecclesiasticalrevolt of Martin

Luther,and the establishment of the Protestant faith,
less than four hundred years ago, and more than
fifteen hundred years after the birth of
Christianity,
[ the whole Christian church, without an exception,
i in all its different branches,had not only held, but
i strenuouslypreached and taught,substantially the
I whole body of what to-day constitutes modern
I spiritualism.On this truth Christianity itself was
obviouslyfounded,and to it owed its entire validity
\ and strength.
During all these fifteen hundred years, while the
church was growing from infancyto nearly universal
power and domination, its whole career was an broken
un-

record of the continuous phenomena of

spiritualmanifestations, includingclairvoyance, clair-
audience,ecstasy,trance visions, apparitions, haunt-
 ARGUMENT FOR SPIRITUALISM 19

ings, exorcisms,psychical manifestations,voices,

speech in unknown languages,descent of spiritual
afflatus,visible intercommunion between the living
and the dead, slate-writings, spiritpictures,auto-
matic
and direct writings, extra-human spirit control
of living bodies,obsession,possession, etherealisation,
materialisation and dematerialisation,alternating
consciousness,spiritualhealing of diseases and in- firmities
spiritguardianshipof those still livingby
friends gone beyond, intercession and mutual aid,
giftsof prophecy and crystalvision,messages to and
fro between earth life and spirit life, levitation, ling
hand-
of fire without injury,materialisation of single
parts of spiritual bodies, playing on musical instru-
ments,
and singing,by materialised spirits, direct
spiritcontrol for great and good purposes, or, in
other cases, for bad purposes, by spirits of different
grades or spheres,spiritlights,spiritrevelations,
and every sort of manifestation with which we have
now become familiar through modern mediums in the
present age. ( The only difference is that modern
our

phenomena aW-irot'xlaimed to be ecclesiastical in

their nature,or under the control,specifically, of any
church or creed,whereas the others were.^^But even
then, during all those centuries,the"'cliurch stood
ready to adopt all the manifestations of the humblest
human agencies, when their apparent genuineness had
been established, and nearlyall its most importantso-
called miracles (ofJoan of Arc, for example) were
the offspringof human mediums not at the time
numbered among her great ones, her saints or her
high ofiicials. The country clergyman,the ignorant
peasant, the weak girl, the clairvoyant woman, the
student,the devout, but nearly aways the obscure
and unconscious medium, first brought forth these
great manifestations of the continuous life beyond
and the church then took hold, investigated, and,
these humble instruments,in consequence, were often
raised to power and saintship ; or the lower spirits
which haunted placeswhere crime had been committed
or
wrong endured, which entered into good men and
women, and changed them, temporarily or per-
20 SPIRIT AND MATTER

manently, into new creatures, these the church trolled

con-

and expelled by the great gift which its mighty

Founder directly placed in its hands, and which it

exercised in His Name.

In this connection, Rev. Dr C. M. Davies, well-

a

known clergyman of the English church, '*

I
says,
cannot see why it should be incongruous for the clergy
to examine doctrines which profess to amplify rather

than supplant those of revelation, more than I

any

can see why scientists stand aloof from what

fesses
pro-
to be a purely positive philosophy, based
upon
the inductive method.*'
22 SPIRIT AND MATTER

number to constitute the New Testament, and this

selection and endorsement, which alone gave them
canonicalvalue,was not only the work of the same
church,so much of whose other teaching
spiritualistic
they repudiated,but the canon itself w^as made
centuries after the time of Christ,and by various
councils and like authorities of the same ecclesiastical
under
organisation, direct
spiritual guidance.
In addition to the four gospelsthus approved,
there were rejectedmore than fiftyother gospels,
which had been in common use among Christians,
and in addition to the seventeen epistlesthen ac-
cepted,

more than one hundred, previously accepted

and used, were rejected. There are sixty-eightNew
Testament books mentioned by Christian fathers of
the firstfour centuries which are not now known to be
in existence.
And the great councils which finally established
the presentcanon only did this after centuries during
which the Christian books were left to be selected or

interpretedas each one might, by spiritual be

gifts,
able to do for himself " the books themselves (in
manuscript, of course) being subject to all the
vicissitudes to which other literaryremains were

subjected.
As the Christian writer,Mr Westcott, says (and
what the facts themselves attest): ''It does not
appear that any special care was taken in the first age
to preserve the books of the New Testament from the
various of time, or to insure perfectaccuracy
injuries
of transcription.They were given as a heritageto
man, and it was some time before men felt the full
value gift. The originalcopiesseem
of the to have
soon disappeared.''If, during this period, God's
miraculous spiritualcontrol did not preserve the
Bible,then what did ?
"
In the Companion to the Revised Version of the
New Testament," Dr Alexander Roberts, a member
of the Revision Committee, shows that the Greek
Testament owes its complete form to the labours of
Cardinal Ximenes, and it was not completed until the
year 1514. Nearlyat the same time Erasmus brought
 SPIRITUALISM IN THE CHURCH 23
out his
edition,and his fourth edition,the result of
comparison with the work of Cardinal Ximenes,
became the basis of all subsequenttexts.
Of the edition of Erasmus, that distinguished
*'
author said : It was rather tumbled headlong into
the world than edited/' In the gospels he principally
used a cursive manuscriptof the fifteenth or sixteenth
*'
century, admitted by all to be of a very inferior
character/' In the Acts and epistles he chiefly followed
a cursive manuscript of the thirteenth or fourteenth
century, with occasional references to another of the
fifteenth century. For the Apocalypse he had only
"
one mutilated manuscript; says Dr Roberts, He
had thus no documentary materials for publishing
a completeedition of the Greek Testament.''
This will show the fragmentary character of the
manuscripts, and that it was only the old church,
under God's continuous spiritualisticmanifestations,
which saved them, or gave them any authenticity at
all,and this was not done for centuries after the time of
Christ. Dr Nathaniel Lardner,the distinguished writer
'*
on Christian Evidences,"says that the canon was

not settled until about the year 556, and that,priorto

*'
that time, Christian peoplewere at liberty to judge
for themselves concerningthe genuinenessof writings
proposed to them as apostolic, and to act according
to evidence."
And the deficiencies and uncertainties in the
originalhave been supplemented and increased by
equally important errors in the translation,
many
of which go to the very foundation and
principles,
on a considerable number of which diverse creeds
and denominations have been established. Canon
"
Farrar,in his recent book, Texts Explained," cites
many such passages, to which he attaches such
"
comments as these : Here the wrong rendering
adopted in our familiar version involves a positive
"
theologicalerror ; "No sense can be made of this
" "
rendering ; The true readingand renderingare,
'
*
They shall become one flock,one shephei^ ; the
importance of this correction can hardly be over-
estimated
" "
; This unfortunate misrendering,
24 SPIRIT AND MATTER

tending to strengthenCalvinistic errors, should be

" **
corrected ; Here the mistranslation obliterates
" '*
the meaning of the whole argument Nay, it ;
'' '' "
was the reverse of the fact ; That phrase (for
"
Christ's sake) does not once occur in Scripture
in this
" ''
connotation ; The meaning in this memorable
passage is
absolutelyreversed by the Authorised
" '
Version ; ''In the followingclause the made
*
Himself of no reputation of the Authorised Version
'
loses the transcendent force of the emptied Himself '

!)fthe original, though on the verb in the original is

based the important theological doctrine of Christ's
*' *'
Kenosis ; In the Authorised Version the meaning
'' '*
is weakened, obscured,and almost lost ; St Paul
did not here tell the Thessalonians that the day of
'' ''
Christ was not at hand. On the contrary ; Even
the universally cited phrasethat the love of money is
* '
the root of all evil is not a correct translation, which
'
is that the love of money is a root of all kinds of
evir"; "Neither 'heresy' nor 'heretic' occur in
the New Testament. The words so rendered mean
* ' ' ' " "
faction and factious ; This might sound hke
an imputed contradiction of St Paul ; but, in the true
"
rendering,it is nothing of the kind ; and so on in
hundreds of instances.
In this conceded deficiency of the original record
and the errors of translation,the book itself of
necessityrequiredsome authorityhigher than itself
to even determine its facts and interpret its meaning.
Not only was there to be a handwriting,but a con- tinually

inspiredDaniel,and this was to be the living

body of Christ,actingthrough the inspiration of men.
The old church thus became the guarantor of the
record,and by the same spiritualagencieswhich it
manifested in its recognitionand control of the
psychicalmanifestations during those centuries. It
winnowed out and determined the records of the
church, and those books which it endorsed are

canonical, and those which it rejected are now

esteemed as of
account, even no by its opponents.
The Protestants, in acceptingas infallible the
dictum of the Catholic church,many centuries after
 SPIRITUALISM IN THE CHURCH 25
the apostolicage, thereby conceded the persistence
of spiritualistic manifestations in a direct line from
the earlier church,which their Protestant successors

afterwards denied,while these latter, still,less,

neverthe-
held fast to the canon itself ; and hence they
conceded that spiritualistic manifestations did not
cease with the apostolic age, but continued long after-
wards,
for the miracle of saving a Bible at that late
date was precisely the same as of saving one now,
Christ Himself foretold,while on earth, that His
followers and their successors should manifest the
same spiritualistic powers and perform the same
miracles as Himself,and not onlythis, but that others,
not of His church or of His faith, nor of any church or
religion, would continue to do the same in the future,
as they were then doing during His lifetime, and had
been during all the immemorial ages of the past.
''
In Exodus we read : The magicians of Egypt
''
did so with their enchantments ; in Leviticus,
** ''
Regard not them that have familiar spirits ; in the
'*
Acts, A certain maid having a spiritof divination,
a python, a spirit, met us, which brought her masters
much gainby soothsaying." The context shows that
it was a genuine giftin the opinion of the sacred
writer.
The danger to any creed, based on a written
record of spiritualistic
phenomena, arisingfrom an
unecclesiastical continuance of the same sort of
phenomena duringsubsequentages, is a real danger,
for it not only multipliesinterpretations, but it
invites conflict, and indefinitely extends the original
authorities themselves. This danger the old church
(and the same is true of all compact religious tions)
organisa-
sought to overcome by taking command and
control of the whole field of spiritual phenomena ;
but Protestantism,appealing alone to the reason,
necessarily gave to all its followers the same rightof
appeal. Hence, lest it should become an inextricable
entanglement of incongruousrevelations, it simply
cut the Gordian knot by denyingthat the machinery
any longeracted,or that the phenomena any longer
appeared. This was a giganticundertaking,and
26 SPIRIT AND MATTER

required the sure support of unyielding,gross

an

materialism to make it effective. These utterly

incompatibleelements thus became mutual allies and
supporters of each other,and have so continued down
to the present day. It is true that many among the
non-Catholic adherents have always recognised the
facts as they reallyexist,and Christians who are firm
and advanced spiritualists are now numbered by
millions " but this is contrary to the unwritten law
and of nearlyall the
teachings Protestant branches of
the church "
so that we have had the strangespectacle
presented that the dogma and teachingsof these
sectarian Christian denominations and those of
materialistic preciselythe same, while
atheists are

those who believe in the actual teachingsof both

the Old and New Testaments, and the promises of
their continuance contained therein,in repudiating
atheism must also repudiate the dogmatic teachingsof
''
their own theological leaders. I say theological,"
'' "
not religious by any means.
It is said that after the resurrection, when Christ
spoke to His followers in His materialised form, and
justbefore His ascension.He commissioned those who
were to carry on His work, those who believed,and
''
those who taught in His name : Go ye into all the
world, and preach the gospelto every creature. . . ,

And these signsshall follow them that believe : In

my name they shall cast out devils ; they shall speak
with new tongues ; they shall take up serpents ; and
if they drink any deadly thingit shall not hurt them ;
they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall
recover.''
To showthe attitude of the Protestant church,it is
only necessary to cite the followingfootnote to the
above commission of Christ from the Annotated New
Testament, publishedby the ReligiousTract Society
of London, Mark xvi. 15-18 :
''
During the first ag,e of the church, these extra-
ordinary

gifts were not only exercised by the apostles

themselves,but were also conveyed by them to others.
At period they ceased
what cannot be precisely
ascertained,but there is reason to believe that they
 SPIRITUALISM IN THE CHURCH 27

were withdrawn, not suddenly, but by degrees. They

were important as aids to the introduction of a new

revelation from God, but there was clearly no

necessity for their permanent continuance. As soon

as they became matters of authentic history, the

record of them took their place among the evidences

'
of the truth of Christianity.'
That the Protestant view is untenable is by
proven
the commission of Christ Himself for until His followers
,

had into all the world and preached the Gospel

gone
to living creature (and that surely has not yet
every
been done down to this day), the conditions of the

charge remained valid and as to the lack of necessity

;
for their permanent continuance, on the ground that

it was sufficient to have their record incorporated

the historic evidences of Christianity, a glance
among
at the of Christianising the world, which has
progress
been going for nearly two thousand and a
on years,
'' ''
comparison of its advances during the of faith
ages
"
that is to say, of spiritualism "
as contrasted with
'*
those during the present age of so-called reason,''
will clearly indicate that something considerable has

been lost out of the effective energy of the propaganda,

and that something is the vitality of the whole

crusade.

If Christ sent out His armies and commissioned the

leaders for the whole a woeful breakdown has

war,
occurred the latter, for the war is far from
among
over and the cause is scarcely advancing.
 CHAPTER IV

RESULTS OF DESPIRITUALISING THE CHURCH

In December1896 the Rev. Dwight L. Moody, the

celebrated evangeHst, preached a sermon in Carnegie
Hall in New York, to an overflowing audience, in
"
which he said : There is hardly a name so popular
un-

in the world to-day as that of Jesus Christ.

Is there a nation in the world that wants Him to
return to earth ? Is there a state in this Union that
would like to have Him come back and rule the world ?
Would this
country, if the question were submitted
to a popular vote, express a desire to have Christ on

earth ? Would England, or Germany, or France, or

Spain, or Italy, or any other of the nations of

Christendom do it ? No ; wouldn^t Christ, if He did
come back to reign, find the world in just the same
condition as He found it eighteen hundred years
''
ago ?
In September 1899 Bishop Bradley of
Manchester, New Hampshire, spoke in St Joseph's
*'
Cathedral in that city, and said : One does not need
to more than keep his ear open to note that there is

among mankind a spreading disregard for authority

of the state and of the church and all other authority,
including that of Jesus Christ."
Contrast withburning these
words of the

Tertullian, one of the great fathers of the early church,

himself the son of a Roman soldier,born in Carthage,
and who embraced Christianity in the maturity of
his manly powers, and wrote nearly two hundred
after the Christian era, at a period which we
years
consider to have been the very infancy of the power
of the church of Christ. But, alas ! how different
those ages were in reahty ! Appealing to the Roman

28
 30 SPIRIT AND MATTER

of these phenomena are common spiritualexperiences

throughoutthe whole world,both before and since the
time of Jesus,and in recent years have been scientific-
ally
demonstrated, and many of the facts almost
universally accepted.
But there is one class of miracle,so-called, of
''
which Irenaeus says : And even now, as we have
said, the dead have also been raised and have mained
re-
with us for many years,'' which requires,
in any discussion of psychology,to be considered.
It is true that on the resurrection of Christ the whole

jj system of orthodox Christianity is based, and that

11 the miracle of raising the dead was narrated a number
\l of times as having been performed by Christ while
11 living
as a man on earth.
' But to many Christian minds, imbued with the
older notions of psychology,in which an all-working
material nature had supplanted an all-working,
''
spiritual God, in which, as Romanes says, God is
still grudged His own universe,'' these statements
appear as pure superstitions, born of the spiritual
exaltation of enthusiasm, instead of the spiritual
power of life. Even the orthodox are very apt to
fightshy of these narratives, feelingthat they are
**
hard sayings."
Now, it does not concern the purposes of this book
to assert that these were veritable cases, or to deny
that they were ; it is altogether immaterial,but it
does concern the purposes of this book to show that
such an exercise of spiritualpower was, and still
is,quite consistent with what we know of scientific
psychology,and of human experience.
Various explanations have been suggested,all
based on mistakes of the observers. Discountingthat
of fraud,by showing that the conditions of fife are
such as to render this explanation,while often
reasonable, not necessary, and not necessarily
scientific, the principal allegation is that these were
''
simply cases of suspended animation." This sus-
pended
'*
animation is like the term hypnotism,"
which those who understand it least are most apt to
use to satisfy their doubts.
 DESPIRITUALISING THE CHURCH 31

What is the difference between a case of pended

sus-

animation and death ? It is simply this :

if the subject returns to animation again it is sus-
pended

animation, if not, it is death. It is obvious

that this is
merely begging the question. There is,
in fact,no actual test of death except decomposition.
But decompositionitselfis no test of death if biology
has any rightto speak, for we find that those animals
which undergo various stages of metamorphosis in
reaching their final stage undergo actual decom- position
throughout, at every stage, and a new

animal is actually created out of the raw material,

as much as though built up de novo. This,of course,
is well known to modern but
naturalists, was totally
unknown to the older ones, who believed and taught
that new organs were merely grown out of the older
structure,as branches grow on trees. But we know
better now. To cite a book accessible everywhere,
I quote the followingfrom Orton's ^'Comparative
'' ''
Zoology (1884): Every tissue of the larva dis- "f
' '

before the developmentof the tissues ofthe

" '

^"^^
appears new

imago is commenced. (The organs do not change from ;, .

.
,,, ^,

one into the other,but the new set is developedout of ^/

formless matter.'' As the larva disappears for
^ ever

by decompositioninto formless matter, that certainly j-^.a^^.^ ^^

,

"^
is dead under the severest test of death. As the
^^
imago is developedout of the same formless matter,
^

then, if there were remaininglife, it was not the lifeof

the larva ; it was a new creation of life unless^and
this is the vital point,life is not tied fast to forms,
but is independentof form, and producesforms, and
heredity,if we choose to call it such, is immaterial
and extraneous in its work as a modifier and pro-ducer
that is to say, the larva dies as larva,but the
"

life principle continues and rebuilds a new structure

out of the raw material of the old. We do indeed
''
make stepping-stones our
of dead selves.''
Sir John Franklin,in the narrative of his tion
expedi-
across Canada to the Arctic Ocean in 1819-1820,
''
narrates that when the weather was severe the fish
froze as they were taken out of the nets ; and if they
were afterwards placednear the fire so as to thaw the
 ^
32 SPIRIT AND MATTER

ice,they revived,even when

they had been in a
frozen state for several hours/l.;
I can corroborate this statement ; I have seen a
small lake caught in a freezing snap in which the
ice suddenlyfroze several inches deep,and locked in
thousands of
largefish,which the farmers quarried
out like nuggets. Many days might elapse, and yet
these chunks of fish and ice,if placedin a vessel of
cool water, would show the fish swimming about as the
ice melted.
It is a well-known experimentto revive drowned
UL^
house fliesby placingthem on a board and covering
them with a little dry kitchen salt. They will re-
vive,
either singlyor in bunches,even if they have
been under water for twenty-fourhours or longer.
Anyone can try this experiment for himself.
Partial death is common ; take the case of a

gangrene of the legfrom an arterial plug in the main

/ .artery; when did death of the leg supervene, and
icruvA/U v^hat was the test? Will boilingwater destroy
C iL\".J\human life ? A method of treatingdeep wounds on

i the battlefield,and arrestinghaemorrhageby injecting

^i^y live steam to the bottom, through a pipe,has been
i"\-wvr\^ successfully used ; and after a few days the boiled
flesh, and its nerves, blood-vessels, lymphatics,etc.,
are slowlyrestored to life again.
Then we have those psychical departuresof the
spiritual, or conscious,or sub-conscious part of the
mentality, and its return,and in fact examples of all
sorts, which go to show that the vitality, while not
apart from the body in life, is still a psychical ordinate,
co-

and was apart before the body began, is

sometimes apart while the body continues, and will be
permanently apart when the functions of the body
have finally ceased. That is all we can say ; but the
facts,while they make my former statement of the
''
ordinarytest,that if they return to Hfe they have
not been dead, if they do not return they are dead,'*
a case of beggingthe question, yet,in a broader sense,
it is the only test.
I was once an involuntaryparty to such a resur-
rection.

When a boy of perhapseightor ten years

old, there was a fierce, hairy, red-faced and vindictive
 DESPIRITUALISING THE CHURCH 33
old who
fellow, was the terror of all the boys who were
able to fire green applesand the like with any sort of
precision, and even we ferociously,
innocent ones were

and with pursued by this great

terrific imprecations,
ogre with the enormous stick and knife which he
always carried. Old CaptainZum was his name, and
his occupationwas to trudge from farm to farm and
do such surgicalwork on the porcineinhabitants as
the occasion required.
On one of these journeys, some miles away, he fell
sick at a farmer's place, and apparentlydied. Every
effort was made by family and physicians save
to
him, but in vain,and late at nighthe was regretfully
" '*
laid out on a coolingboard in the wash-house to
''
await the morning. After breakfast,the hired
"
man was sent to the village with the dire intelli-
gence,
and the undertaker rode out to examine the
remains, and take the proper measurements, for in
those days the mortuary receptacles were built to
order,and not kept in stock. So another day passed
while the coffin-maker pliedhis tools,and the be- reaved
familyfixed up the house for the receptionof
the silent guest. Next morning,now the third day, a
coupleof men with an open springwaggon drove out
to bring in the body. It was intensely, terrifically
cold, and when the team reached the villagestore it
was halted,and the driver and his assistant went in to
warm up, for they were nearlyfrozen.
We boys, standing on the store porch, gazed
over the white sheet,which marked the rise of the
forehead,the stumpy nose and chin,the swell of the
abdomen, the knobby knees, and then the stiff feet
standingup like mile-posts, and the final drop till
the sheet met the long,projecting rye-straw,which
made the cleanly bed for our erstwhile enemy. Was
it true ? Was this the old captain in full sooth ?
Slowly,boy by boy, we crept down and climbed
up the wheels of the waggon, two or three on each hub,
to get a better view. There he lay,cold and dead "

cold certainly.
I took hold of the corner of the sheet above his
head, and slowlyraised it,to gaze upon that well-
34 SPIRIT AND MATTER

known face ; when suddenly,instantaneously, whelmingly,

over-
he whirled over, rose on his elbow, and
"
hoarselyshouted out in our faces, What the devil
"
are you doing there ?
Shades of Sodom and Gomorrah ! such a tumbling
backward ; but the old captainrode home
to escape
in triumph, damned his old wife and lammed his
hapless daughter, and lived through eleven long
seasons of green apples afterwards. Peace to his
ashes : for then he died,and stayed dead.
With all the modern the
appliances, old captain
would have had his tombstone carved with the earlier
date, and would have there lain silent beneath the
sod ; and all the neighbours would have dated
various events as a year after,or two winters before,
old Captain Zum died, had I not involuntarily surrected
re-

him, as I did.
The problem is not so easy ; the case is not so
plain; it is simply a matter of evidence for each
case ; and modern psychology has no dogma, no a
prioriybut leaves the question of fact, while not
denying that of scientific possibility. There is no
scientific reason why a believer should not fully
believe it ; there is no reason at all why a sceptic
should have to believe it at least, not yet. "

I do not sustain my view merely on assertion ; I

quote the followingfrom one of the soundest and
strongest men of science which the recent half-
century has produced, one whose whole study was
in the cold and solid fields of science,George John
Romanes, of whom I shall have much to say later
on.
"
These are his words : Why should it be thought
a thingincredible with you that God should raise the
dead ? Clearlyno answer can be given by the pure
'
agnostic. But he will naturallysay in reply : The
questionrather is,why should it be thought credible
with you that there is a God, or, if there is,that he
'
should raise the dead ? And I think the wise
'
Christian will answer, I believe in the resurrection of
the dead, partly on grounds of reason, partly on
those of intuition, but chiefly on both combined ; so
 DESPIRITUALISING THE CHURCH 35

to speak, it is whole character which accepts

my
the whole system of which the doctrine of personal
immortality forms an
essential part/ And to this

it be fairly added that the Christian doctrine of

may
the resurrection of our bodily form cannot have been

arrived at for the of meeting modern

purpose
materialistic objections to the doctrine of personal
immortality hence it is certainly a strange doctrine
;

to have been propounded at that time, together with

its companion, and scarcely less distinctive, doctrine

of the vileness of the body. Why was

it not said

* '
that the soul alone should survive as a
bodied
disem-
' '
spirit ? Or if form supposed
were necessary
for man as distinguished from God, that he was to be

an angel ? But, be this as it the doctrine of the

may,
resurrection seems to have fully met beforehand

the materialistic objection to a future life, and so to

have raised the ulterior question with which this

paragraph opens/'
 CHAPTER V

THE SPIRITUAL CONFLICT WITHIN THE CHURCH

It was thus Christianity rode triumphant over

that
Greek and Roman philosophy and civiHsation,
cherished by the whole world, even to this day, as
among its most precious heritages (and, indeed, the
unacknowledged source of a large portion of our
"
scepticism) ; and it swept for- ward
''
modern scientific
amid the fires of persecution which filled the

sky with the smoke of burning victims, which lined

the highways with Christian-laden crucifixes, and
filled the dungeons, and made public arenas the

crunching-grounds of wild beasts, fed with hosts of

helpless women and tender babes, as well as

martyred men, and won well-nigh universal victory.

Who is so credulous as to believe that this tremendous

cataclysm of old faiths, and the resistless advance

and triumph of the new, among nations so haughty,
hard-headed brainy ancient
and Greeks and as the

Romans, were but the thaumaturgical trickery of a

few unknown, discredited and apostate, prestidigitat-
ing Jewish peasants ?
" ''

Says Du Prel, in his Philosophy of Mysticism :

''
The condition in which the Protean trans-

scendental Subject can be stimulated is bulism.

somnam-

It is not alone animal magnetism which can

awaken this condition there are other causes which

;
also introduce it : as disturbances of the cerebral life,
a high tension of profound in-
imaginative ternal
power,
agitation, and likewise inspiration of certain
vapours, the use of different vegetable substances, and
the influence of minerals. So that somnambuHsm is

historicallyconfined to the knowledge of

by no means

animal magnetism. We find it at all times. Som-

36
38 SPIRIT AND MATTER

with its rough and often uncouth girdleof cameFs

hair, and its uncultured diet of locusts and wild
honey, and, perchance,with its crown of triumphant
martyrdom.
For many heroic soldiers must be shot to death
between the lines before the great final advance
occurs, which carries by storm the earthworks and
fortifications of the enemy.
The result of these processes negation,in the of
church, of a livingand inspiring faith, the relegation
of the life of the church to an ancient, imperfectand
uncertain record,buried in the mouldering pages of
old manuscripts, of which only mutilated copieswere
existent, or a subsequently printed book in which the
study of the livingGod was replacedby a super-stitious
bibliolatry, when religionwas cast and
frozen into glittering icicles of creeds and catechisms,
could easilyhave been foreseen. The multiplication
of sects and theories has gone on and on, like a

magnificent and gorgeous icebergsplintering into

destruction by its own frosts and collisions,
and over
the remains
tottering has been raised,in the name of
** "
the Goddess of Reason (dear to the sans-culottes
of the French Revolution,and their fellows of to-day),
the pseudo-scientific temple of infidelity,agnosticism
and atheism. It is but one short step from belief in a
dead Bible to belief in a dead God.
Says Professor Herron, of the chair of Applied
''
in Iowa
Christianity College: Most of us accept
traditions of a God who lived down
through the
Hebrew prophets and the early Christian apostles.
Possiblysome of us have an undefined sense that
God was livingduringthe Reformation and until the
Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock. Or we are

willing to believe,and that with a considerable degree

of emotion, in a God who will live suddenly and
immensely in some after-death world, or in some
remote millennium, in which he shall sit in terrific
judgment on the world. But the idea that God is
livingnow, in the midst of a livingpeople,inspiring
and teachingthem even more directlythan he in- spired
and taught the people of centuries ago, with
 CONFLICT WITHIN THE CHURCH 39
revelations concerningour present problems as sure
and safe as any revelations of the past, and with
judgments as swift and immediate as any judgments
of the future at such"
a faith we grow pale,or turn
from it in anger.
**
We prophets and martyrs and
forgetthat the
apostleshave met their tragicends justbecause they
insisted that God was alive,and sayingthingsabout
the immediate and practicalconcerns of men ; that
they characterised as downright infidelity the beliefs
that put God into yesterdayand his judgmentsinto
to-morrow."
The livingsurge of enthusiastic, spiritualistic and
conquering Christianity, thus caught among the
breakers,trammelled and scattered,has spent its
energy in self-destructive eddies,and largely lost the
vitalising force which first impelledit onward.
As Canon Barnett has recentlyexpressed it :
**
Moralityfor the mass of men has been dependent
on the consciousness of God, and with the lack of
means of expression, the consciousness of God seems
** "
to have ceased." The Means of Expression are
the means of spiritualism. But out of this decadent
gospelof agnosticismand negationa new knowledge
is arising, and both science and religion, as soon as

they cast aside their earth-grimedgarments of pride,

prejudiceand self-sufhciency, find new and sure

demonstrations of the eternally living truth at hand

on every side,so that not even a half-dozen friends,
who are earnest seekers,can be gotten together
seriouslyto investigatethese phenomena, among
whom palpablemanifestations of this livingpower
will not appear. Spiritualists will stake their whole
case on this simpleproposition.
'*
Said Jesus, And lo,I am with you alway, even
" '*
unto the end of the world ; and, Where two or
three are gatheredtogetherin my name there am I
in the midst of them." Death does not end all, and it
is in this way that a new and broadeningChristianity
is being graduallydeveloped,free,on the one hand,
from the bigoted domination of the old theological
systems, and, on the other, from the superstitious
40 SPIRIT AND MATTER

of the ignorant,
credulity as well equally as from the
which
superstitiousincredulity, will not even look,
lest it be forced to see, of modern agnosticism. Like
old Barbara Frietchie,spiritualism, in an age of
cowardice and faithlessness,

"Took up the flagthe men hauled down.'*

She flungit forth in the face of the invadinghost,

and established again the rational develo.pmentof
spiritual knowledge and the religious life and fellow-
ship,
by a continuous intercommunication between
the great and good of this world, and those of the
life yet to come.
But this great Protestant revolt against
ecclesiasticaldominion, involving, as it did,the denial

of spiritualism as a whole, in order to overthrow it

as the most powerful supporter of the old faith,was
not the first great revolt of the church. When
Christianity first arose it was but a weakling,so far
as this world was concerned ; it grew and grew with
graduallyincreasingmomentum, so that it stood
face to face and equal with the paganism of the
Roman Empire,which was practically the civilisation
of the world ; and, as this paganism had gradually
absorbed into itself the art of antiquity, so that art
had become tributaryto and the most powerful
supporter of the ancient faith was Hnked fast to it, "

and was graduallymade its tributaryand tool the "

risingChristianity would have no part or parcelof all

this art,for to accept art was to palterwith faith, so

closelywere the two bound together.

If you take spiritualism out of the world you leave
it verypoor, and if you take art out of the world you
leave it very poor also. But it was necessary, in
both cases, to do this,and stern, puritanic, ascetic
Christianity fought its century-longbattle against
paganism,and destroyedit by destroyingwith it the
artistic lightof mankind.
The victorywas won ; the cross with its bloody
emblems had triumphed,and the beautiful world lay
strippedand desolate.
But time brought its revenges ; when the ages of
 CONFLICT WITHIN THE CHURCH 41

Christianity had multiplied, and the gods of Greece

and Rome, of Egypt and Babylon, of Phoenicia and
Persia and India, had gone into exile with all their
art and aesthetic and soul-enchantingsymbolism,
but ever merged with a battlingmythology, and
Christianity stood secure at last againstthem ; then,
little by little,age by age, the old arts wound again
their almost unseen tendrils around the cross and the
altar,and, graduallyrevealingtheir soul-compelling
truth and beauty,became a part indeed,again,of the
new theology,or mythology, and not only overlaid
their altars,but penetrated,modified and, at last,
filled with their splendidbursts of ritual, the pro-
cessions
of saints,the festivals, the fasts,the cere-
monies

of the church, until to-day the student of

comparative religiontraces back many of the ac-knowledged

practices,and even beliefs,of the

Christian church to times and placesfar antecedent
to even the birth and teachingof Christ. They came
in new guise, untrammelled by the nomenclature and
environment of the old,but the virile truth could not
be destroyed,the world-religion could not be ex-tinguished,

the revelation which preceded the New

Testament, and which came in, and is identifiable
in,all old religions, was continuouslymanifest again.
So the Jesuit missionaries found these practices
among the Buddhists, who came six centuries before
Christ,the Spanish friars found them among the
Ancient Central Americans, and missionaries found
them wherever they penetrated, so that Father
''
Montucci, the Jesuit,in his Chinese Studies,'* was_
fain to say a century ago : ''No one can doubt that )
the mystery of the Most Holy Trinitywas revealed to
the Chinese five centuries before the coming of Jesus
Christ." ^
And it is so with the Protestant church and
_

spiritualism. When the older church had become

in its practices,
but not in its and
faith,intolerable,
the revolt came, as it must have come, the revolt
which awakened and purifiedthe thunderstricken
old church itself,
it was absolutelynecessary to destroy
its spiritualism,for,this once destroyed,the Bible
 SPIRIT AND MATTER
42

was
its sole remaining instrument, and its claims

were and this, when men came to and

supreme ; see

reflect, left nothing behind but a dubious record and

an absentee God, and an alliance with materialism

bald and bare and the later changes were inevitable,

;
in the form of a revolt from nihilism as the previous
revolt was from asceticism, and the original one from

paganism, and this secret revolt has filled our churches

with spiritualists, while their creeds and dogmas are

still of the benighted past.

A clergyman of one
of our largest Protestant

denominations, returning, a
few from one
years ago,
of their general assemblies, and who spent a few days
''
with said that, If a clergyman had risen and
me,

stated what three-fourths of them honestly believed

he would have been expelled by a two-thirds vote.*'

 CHAPTER VI

CAUSALITY

The of the dominant

fatal fallacy Protestant theology
could not have been
clearlystated thanmore in the
chapter on Causalityby Romanes, who was not a

theologian,but a great master of science,who died a

firm Christian believer " who had in fact been forced,

by to become
science itself, a believer.
'*
He Only because we are so familiar with
says :

the great phenomena of causalitydo we take it for

granted,and think that we reach an ultimate ex- planation

of anything when we have succeeded in

' '
findingthe cause thereof : when, in point of fact,
we have only succeeded in merging it in the mystery
of mysteries, I often wish we could have come into
the world, like the young of some other mammals,
with all the
powers of intellect that we shall ever

subsequentlyattain alreadydeveloped,but without

any individual and so without any of the
experience,
bluntingdefects of custom. Could we have done so,
surely nothing in the world would more acutely
excite our intelligent astonishment than the one
universal fact of causation. (That everythingwhich
happens should have a cause, that this should in- variably
have been proportionedto its effect, so that,
no matter how complex the interaction of causes, the
same interaction should always produce the same
result?)that this rigidlyexact system of energising
should be found to present all the appearances of
and
universality of
eternity, so that,for example, the
motion of the solar system in space is being deter-mined
by some causes beyond human ken, and that
we are indebted to billions of cellular unions,each in-
volving
billions of separate causes, for our hereditary
43
44 SPIRIT AND MATTER

passage from an invertebrate ancestry " that such

thingsshould be, would surelystrike us as the most
wonderful fact in this wonderful universe.
*'
with
Now, although familiarity this fact has
made forgetits wonder to the extent of virtually
us

assuming that we know all about it,philosophical

inquiry shows that, besides empiricallyknowing it
to be a fact,we only know one other thing about it
viz. that our
"
knowledge of it is derived from our
own activitywhen we ourselves are causes. No
result of psychological analysisseems to me more

certain than this. If it were not for our own tions,

voli-
we should be ignorantof what we can now not
doubt, on pain of suicidal scepticism,
be the most to
generalfact of nature.
**
Now to the plainman it will always seem that if
our very notion of causality
is derived from our own
volition "
as very notion of energy is derived from
our

our sense of effort in overcoming resistance by our

volition "
presumably the truest notion we can form
of that in which causation objectivelyconsists is the
notion derived from that known mode of existence
which alone givesus the notion of causality at all.
Hence the will
always infer that all energy
plainman
is of the nature of will-energy, and all objective
causation of the nature of subjective. So that ...

the direct and most natural interpretationof

causality in external nature which is drawn by primi-
tive
thought in savages and young children, seems

destined to become also the ultimate deliverance of

human thought in the highestlevels of its culture.*'
Many years before Romanes, Sir John Herschel
had presentedthe same inevitable truth in his chapter
*'
on The Originof Force.''
"
Whenever," this distinguished man of science
''

says, in the material world,what we call a phenome-

non
or an event takes place,we either find it resolvable
ultimatelyinto some change of placeor of movement
in material substance,or we endeavour to trace it up
to some such change ; and only when successful in
such endeavour we consider that we have arrived at its
theory. In every such change we recognisethe action
46 SPIRIT AND MATTER

to change,at least temporarily, the amount of mical

dyna-
force appropriate to some one or more material
molecules,the mechanical results of human or animal
volition are inconceivable. It matters not that we
are ignorantof the mode in which this is performed.
It suffices to bring the originationof dynamical
power, to however small an extent,within the domain
of acknowledged personality. . . .

'*
The universe presents us with an assemblage
of phenomena, physical,vital and intellectual the "

connectinglink between the worlds of intellect and

matter beingthat of organisedvitality, occupyingthe
whole domain of animal and vegetablelife, through-
out
in
which, some way inscrutable to us, movements,
among the molecules of matter are originated of such
a character as apparentlyto bring them under the
control of an agency other than physical, superseding
the ordinarylaws which regulatethe movements of
inanimate matter, or, in other words, givingrise to
movements which would not result from the action of
those laws uninterfered with : and
implying, therefore
on the very same the
principle,
origination of force.
The first and greatestquestionwhich Philosophyhas
had to resolve in its attempts to make out a Kosmos,
" to bringthe whole of the phenomena exhibited in
these three domains of existence under the contempla-
tion
of the mind as a congruous whole is,whether "

we can derive any lightfrom our internal conscious-

ness
of thought,reason, power, will, motive, design "

or not : whether, that is to say, nature is or is not

more interpretable by supposingthese things(be they
what they may) to have had, or to have, to do with
its arrangements. Constituted as the human mind
is,if nature be not interpretable through these con-
ceptions,

it is not interpretable at all. Will . . .

without Motive, Power without Design,Thought op- posed

to Reason would be admirable in explaining a

chaos, but would render little aid in accounting for

anythingelse.'*
Lamarck also,the founder of modern evolution, is
'*
equallyexplicit.In his ^'Anatomy of Invertebrates
*'
he says, Strangeoccurrence ! that the watch should
 CAUSALITY 47
have been confounded with its maker, the work
with its author. Assuredlythis idea is and
illogical
unfit to be maintained. The power which has
created Nature, has,without doubt, no limits, cannot
be restricted in its will or be made subjectto others,
and independent of all law. It alone can change
is
Nature and her laws,and even annihilate them ; and
althoughwe have no positiveknowledge of this first
object,the idea which we thus form of the Almighty
Power is at least more suitable for man to entertain
of the Divinity, when he can raise his thoughtsto the
contemplationof him. If Nature were an gence,
intelli-
it would exercise volition and
change its laws,
or rather there could be no law. Finally,if Nature
were God, its will would be independent,its acts
unconstrained ; but this is not the case ; it is,on the
contrary, continually subjectto constant laws, over
which it has no power ; it hence follows, that although
its means are infinitely diversified and inexhaustible,
it acts always in the same manner in the same cumstance
cir-
without the power of actingotherwise.''
/" And I may cite the following from the General
( Scholium of Sir Isaac Newton's immortal work on
''
optics: " the instinct of brutes and insects can
And
be the effect of nothingelse than the wisdom and skill
of the powerful,ever-living agent, who, being in all
places,is more able
by his will to move the bodies
within his boundless,uniform sensorium,and thereby
to form and reform the part of the universe,than we
are by our will to move the parts of our bodies."
'^ **
And again, in his Principia," He is omni-
present,
not virtually alone,but substantially. In him
all things are contained and moved, but without
mutually affecting each other."
Indeed it would be difficult to discover a really
first-rateman of science to take the opposing view.
''
Romanes suggestively states that, when I was at
Cambridge, there was a galaxy of genius in that
department emanating from that place such as had
never before been equalled. And the curious thingin
our present connection is that all the most illustrious
names were ranged on the side of orthodoxy." Re-
48 SPIRIT AND MATTER

cent statistics show that in the summary of the lead-

ing
American collegesand universities, religious
belief increases in its percentage from the freshman
year to the end of the course, so that at graduation
more than fifty per centum are firm believers in the
truth ofreligion.
Surelywe should expect that that religion which
is fundamentallyestablished on the propositions that
" ''
God is a spirit/' that God is that Spirit in whom
''
we live,and move, and have our being,'' that ever
When-
two or three are gatheredtogetherin my name
there am I in the midst of them," should bind itself
firmlyand for all time to the spiritualistic views such
as I have cited from Romanes, Sir John Herschel,
Lamarck and Isaac Newton, but it has not been so,
and Christianity, especiallyamong the Protestant
branches,has lost enormously thereby.
We may even go back to the heathen days of
"
Rome, and cite Cicero's work On the Nature of the
Gods," to show that this division of belief is even pre-
''
Christian,for Cicero says, There are some phers,
philoso-
both ancient and modern, who have conceived
that the gods take not the least cognisanceof human
affairs. if their doctrines be true of what
But avail
is piety,sanctity, or religion ? There are other
. . .

philosophers,and those too very great and illustrious

men, who conceive the whole world to be directed
and governed by the will and wisdom of the gods ;
nor do they stop here,but conceive likewise that the
deities consult and provide for the preservation of
mankind."
Who would imagine for a moment that any
Christian could possiblyuse such language as the
reportersof the dailypress have attributed to a dis- tinguished
clergyman,an evangelist celebrated in two
continents,in one of his recent sermons delivered to
an audience of thousands in Philadelphia ? This is
what this great theological leader is reportedto have
said :
*'
It is the common cant of the day to say that
Christ is here,not in the flesh, but in the spirit ; that
we see his presence in all the glories of the Twentieth
Century. And we are asked to accept this invisible
 CAUSALITY 49

presence in placeof the Lord has said that he who

"
himself will be with us. Was ever such nonsense ?
''
Again, Oh, it is well for the humbugs, the frauds,and
the pretenderswho encumber the world to tell us
that Christ is here,is there,is everywhere. But their
theory of Christ in an obscure corner, of an inner-
chamber Christ,has long been exploded.''He said,
*'
Be warned in time ere it is too late,for when Jesus
comes it will be without warning. It may
to us be a
year hence ; it may be to-morrow ; it may be, for all
that we poor, helplessmisguided creatures in our
ignorance can tell,this very day. As I,*' the . . .

''
speaker said, father,go away from my home to
a

return, so Christ went away from the world of his

children, to return.''
Let us imagine,as a corollary, this vast congrega-
tion
to burst forth into the glorious strains of Lyte's
great prayer and hymn, and, meantime, watch the
evangelist. "

*'
Abide with
me : fast falls the eventide,

The darkness deepens, Lord, with me abide :

When other helpersfail, and comforts flee.

Help of the helpless. Lord, abide with me:
'*
I need presence every passinghour ;
Thy
but Thy grace can
What foil the tempter'spower ?
Who, like Thyself,my guide and stay can be ?
Through cloud and sunshine,Lord, abide with me.
"
I fear no foe with Thee at hand to bless :
Ills have no weight, and tears no bitterness.
Where is death's sting ? where, grave, thy victory ?
I triumph still, if Thou abide with me.

"
Hold Thou Thy cross before my closingeyes ;
Shine through the gloom, and point me to the skies ;
Heaven's morning breaks, and earth's vain shadows flee ;
In life,
in death, O Lord, abide with me."

The notion
evangelist's of anabsentee God, and
of course of an absentee Christ "

very God of very

'^

"
God distinctly
" ^isa
pagan conception, that is,the
materialistic form of paganism for,as Cicero,him-
self ;
''
a pagan, asks of such absentee gods of what
"
avail then is piety,sanctity,
or religion ?
Be not distressed ; listening,as we often have
listened, to the rendering of Chopin's immortal
D
50 SPIRIT AND MATTER
" "
Marche by a full orchestra,
Fun^bre one hears the
solemn,complex rhythm of minor chords,with their
deep,pulsingbeat,like the march of inevitable Fate
in the Greek tragedies ; the marching mourners
swing from side to side with the crashingsound of
each step ; one sees the black led-horses drawing the
caisson which bears the shrouded coffin,in which
rocks to and fro the ghastlycorpse, as the springless
car bumps along the streets ; an appallinghush
rests upon all,and there is heard and felt only the
hopelessmarch of death. God and His Christ may be
sitting aloft,but they seem not to be here,under this
pall. But suddenly there rises one single,clear,
continuous note, flutelike, birdlike, angelic; a new
element,modulating to the major key this time, has
entered the scene, and, as that celestial strain rises
and falls, and calls and echoes and thrills the soul,
hope and joy return,heaven is felt to be here and ever
has been here and all around us, God againis and has
been with and in us, and one feels that living presence,
that guidingspirit-presence which fillsand clingsto
and surrounds that cry, that prayer and hymn in one,
so humble in its words, so inspiring in its trust :

my feet ; I do not ask to see

-' Thou
Keep
The distant scene, one step enough for me."

It is said that Chopin, the Edgar Allan Poe of

music, through the trick of some of his whom
friends,
he visited in the
twilight, improvised this funeral
march in darkness,at the piano,with his arm clasped
around a skeleton mock-playerseated at his side,and
''
one hears the shock, Earth to earth ; ashes to
''
ashes ; one feels the materialistic throb,the march,
the coffin, the clay. But when the soul was liberated
and was claspedand welcomed by its spirit-guardians,
those clear,pure, limpid,triumphant notes of joy
ascended,and we know that the earthlyskeleton was
all forgotten, and that lovingangel forms, and the
divine presence, were all around and about us.
But so we may be prepared to understand the
effects of that nearly fatal error of Christian
theology,by which, to use the words of Romanes,
 CAUSALITY 51

"
God is still grudged His own universe, so to speak,
far and as often as He can possibly be/'
as

''
And he adds, I can
well understand why
infidelity should make the basal assumption in

question, because its whole case must rest thereon.

But surely it is time for theists to abandon this

assumption/'
Now what is this basal false assumption or

fundamental postulate, which Romanes puts to prove

dis-

''
it, in italics ? // there he a personal God, He is

not immediately concerned with natural causation y_

 CHAPTER VII

THE PSYCHISM OF THE UNIVERSE

His demonstration falsityof this proposition is

of the
''
as follows : I propose
"
to show that, provided only
we lay aside all prejudice, sentiment, etc., and follow
to its logicaltermination the guidance of pure reason,
there are no other conclusions to be reached than
these "
viz. {a) That if there be a personal God, no

reason can be
assigned why He should not be im-manent
in nature, or why all causation should not be
the immediate expression of His will. (6) That every
available reason points to the inference that He

probably is so. (c) That if He is so, and if His will

is self-consistent, all natural causation must needs
'

appear to us mechanical.' Therefore (d) that it is

no argument against the divine origin of a thing,
'*
event, etc., to prove it due to natural causation.
This is in strict accord with the trend of modern

psychology. To quote Professor H. W. Conn, in his

*' ''
Story of the Living Machine,*' If the physical
basis of life had proved to be a chemical compound,
the problem of its origin would have been a chemical

one. Chemical forces exist in nature, and these

forces are sufficient toexplain the formation of any
kind of chemical compound. The problem of the

origin of the life substance would then have been

simply to account for certain conditions which sulted

re-

in such chemical combination as would give

rise to this
physical basis of life. But now that the
simplest substance manifesting the phenomena of life
is found to be a machine [mechanical, says Romanes],
we can no longer find in chemical forces efficient cause
for its formation. Chemical forces and chemical

affinitycan explain chemical compounds of any de-

52
54 SPIRIT AND MATTER

the lesson of religion, of spiritualism, and of

psychology.
The Rev. Dr Bingham, of Trinity College, ford,
Hart-
''
makes his Italian girl But not
say : are you

willing to believe, Signor, that our holy mother, the

Church, cares for her children, in this world well

us, as

as
in the next ? Are not willing to believe that
you
she works before us and her perpetual miracles
upon us

and teaches us to see through the thin veil and cognise

re-

much that is going on in the world of spirits ?

But, ah, Signor, do Protestants, so rich and so

you

learned, really believe in supernatural world at

any
all?"
 CHAPTER VIII

SPIRITUALISM THE BASIS OF ALL RELIGIONS

Not only was the old Christian church spiritualistic

to the backbone ; the same is true of the Hebrew
scripturesand faith. The whole Bible, properly
read,and as it was intended to be read, is one long,
continuous and unmistakable record of spiritualism.
''
In light of its true reading all
the the higher
criticism,"
so is merely directed
called, to the tion
correc-
of historical and incidental errors, matters of
detail as trifling
as the correction of like errors in the
records of our present mediumistic trances,or other
manifestations ; the record proves its own validity
by comparison with what is now going on, and the
Bible itself, when simply strippedof its stucco and
artificial drapery,will stand forth,clear in diction,
sublime in purpose, and glorious in promise for all
time to come, the grandest record of authentic
mediumship yet revealed to mankind.
And all the other great religions existent to-day
are, in like manner, entirelyspiritualistic in origin
and development.
In India,Brahmanism, Buddhism, Mohammedan-
ism
and Parseeism ; in China, these same ligions
re-

togetherwith Confucianism and Taoism ; in

Japan, the same with Shintoism,and also in Ceylon
and Farther India ; in Turkey, Arabia, Persia,
Tartary; in Africa,among the American Indians
pre-eminently and most purely, everywhere,wherever
there is a religion at all,
we find all the basic pheno-
mena
of modern spiritualism representedand ac- knowledged.

Among the historic reUgionsof the past the same

is true ; in ancient Egypt, among those-great nations
55
56 SPIRIT AND MATTER

which stretched from Egypt up, along the Medi-

terranean
to the Dardanelles,in the various religions
of the great Euphrates valley,in those of the
mountains, thevalleys and plateaus behind
the
Persian Gulf, in Persia,in the religionsof Greece,
Etruria and Rome, among the Carthaginiansand
their Phoenician ancestors, among the more recent

Druids, in all the islands of the Pacific,among the

Mexicans, the Mayas, the Peruvians,the peoples of
the Amazon, and other prehistoric peoplesof every
age and every country, among all these was

spiritualism fullyrecognised, not only as a fact,but

as the most important fact within the grasp of man.
The eminent anthropologist, the late Dr Daniel
'^
G. Brinton,in a recent lecture on the Religionsof
Ancient Peoples,"said :
'*
What one person calls religionanother calls
superstition.No tribe devoid of religion is known to
exist. No animal, however intelligent, exhibits any
idea of death or exercises any religious sense. If any-
one
who has any religious feelingi s asked his origin
and why he believes in any religion there is one

universal answer : it is because he believes in the

God-given ; that very sentiment
the within him is
God-given. No religionexists that does not depend
on a revelation believed by its votaries. This
principlebelongs as much to the most primitive
religionsas to those of highestdevelopment. Every
Indian on the plains and every savage in South
American tribes has had that sublime beatific vision
which liftshim above humanity into the realm of the
supernatural."
*'
The Supernaturalin Nature," a
author of The
work inscribed to the Lord Bishop of London,
religious
''

says : God was prominent in the minds of primitive

men, they perceived a spiritin everything, mysterious
ghostlinessin all dark space. No tribe or peoplehas
ever been discovered in the whole course of human
history that has not a religionof some kind or

other."
jl^iSaysTylor in his "Primitive Culture": "No
of mankind
religion lies in utter isolation from the
 SPIRITUALISM" BASIS OF RELIGIONS 57

rest, and the thoughts and principlesof modern

Christianity
are attached to intellectual clues which
run through far pre-Christian
back ages to the very
originof human perhaps even
civilisation, of human
''
existence/' Again, The theory of the soul is one
principal part of a system of religious philosophy
which unites in an unbroken line of mental connection
the savage fetich-worshipperand the civilised
Christian.''
" "
The author of The Supernaturalin Nature
"

says : All races have the idea of the soul outliving

the body in a country of ghosts."
'' "
Epes Sargent in his Palpable says : "All
Proof
times and all tribes have had their prophets,seers,
psychics or
sensitives, mediums. The inference is
that these same powers are possessedin different
degreesby all human beings,but that it is only under
certain conditions organisation, of temperament or
influence, that they are developedas we find them to
be in particular instances."
*' "
Sir Charles Lyell in his Antiquity of Man
states that far back in geological times the human
remains found in the prehistoric cavern in Aurignac,
in France, showed that the departingspirits were

fitted out with food and implements for the journey,

just as among the North American Indians of the
present century. And Professor Paul Broca, in
discussing the life of the earliest man, as revealed in
"
their remains, says : Did they have any religious
" '*
belief ? And answers it by saying: They did wear
talismans or amulets. Hunting nations wear similar
talismans to give them luck in hunting. In either
case there was some superstitious idea connected
with them. Does this sufiice for the statement that
"
they had a religion
?
The Rev. Dr Charles Maurice Davies, of the
English Church, a in
pubhc address delivered in
*'
1874,says, in speakingto the spiritualists: On the
broad questionof theology we can conceive of no
singlesubjectwhich a clergyman is more bound to
examine than that which purports to be a new velation,
re-

or, at all events, a largeextension of the

58 SPIRIT AND MATTER

old ; and which, if its claims be substantiated,will

quitemodify our notions of what we call faith. It
proposes, in fact,to supply,in matters we have been
accustomed to take on trust, something so like
demonstration, that I feel not only at liberty, but
actuallybound, whether I like it or not, to look into
the thing. While I recognisethat my own duty
clearlyis to examine the principles you profess, I
find this to be eminently their characteristic, that
they readilyassimilate with those of my own church,
I see nothing revolutionary in them. You have no
propaganda. You do not call upon me, as far as I
understand, to come out of the body I belong to and
joinyours, as so many other bodies do ; but you ask
me simply to take your doctrines with my own creed,
and vitalise it by their means. This has always
attracted me powerfullytowards you. You are the
broadest Churchmen I find anywhere.''
In 1896 the Rev. Dr EUinwood, the Secretaryof
the American Board of Foreign Missions of the
Presbyterian Church, an eminent writer and
"
theologian,author of Oriental Religions and
Christianity,'* writes as follows : "

''
Hypnotism, making due allowances for a
thousand extravagances which have attended it,
does seem to show that one strong and magnetic
human will may so control the mind
and will of its
subjectas by a mere silent volition to direct his words
and acts. shall say then that a disembodied
Who
"
spiritmay not do the same ?
*'
Professor Shaler of Harvard," he says, '^in his
* '
Interpretation of Nature has pointed out the fact
of a strong reaction againstthe materialism which
seemed confident of dominion a few years ago.
Certain flushed
biologicalinvestigators, with the
success of their very confident that,
researches,
were

if they had not been able to discover the human soul

with the microscope, they had at least identified
it very closely with the substance of the brain and
nerves. But now, as the professorshows, science is
beginningto discover realms of spirit lyingbeyond
and of
the physical, which we have as yet but the
 SPIRITUALISM" BASIS OF RELIGIONS 59
barest glimpses of knowledge. Evidently human
research has not yet finished its work is notand
ready to rest its case upon any dogmatic verdict/'
Says Professor William James, Professor of
'*
Philosophyin Harvard University: The phenomena
are among the most constant in history,and it is
' '
most extraordinarythat science should ever have
become blind to them/*
The whole historyof the race demonstrates by
an accumulation of evidence perfectly irresistible to
those who care for evidence,that the psychical, the
both
spiritual, in the man, and extra to the man,
have been the great interactingand controlling
factors of human advancement.
And these conceded
factors,constitutingthe uni-
versal
consensus of all mankind, through all the ages
of mankind, have been absolutelyidentical, and are
to-dayprecisely what they have always been hitherto,
and everywhere, in the past. These fundamental
propositions, apparentlyinherent in,or else revealed
to the human race, and universally employed as the
only basis of ethics as well as of religion,
and as well
of spiritualism, are as follows : "

1. A transcendental, spiritual,
intelligent
power,
universal in scope, in space and time,and in potency,
which power is the formative,preservative and
restorative agency of nature.
2. Direct and recognisedaction of this power upon
and through a similar, but less extensive, spirituality
of man, to mould, to control,and to preserve and
protect the human organism,and its energies.
3. The persistenceof this spiritual individuality
of after death.
man

4. Intercommunion between the human spiritual

personalityand the like of departed
spiritualities
human beings,under various conditions,
at particular
times,and for special purposes.
This superhuman consciousness, which constitutes
the basis of all religion,
ever present and ever acting,
is the same consciousness which
constitutes the basis
of modern ; there is no difference in kind
spiritualism
at all,
and differences in degree; and these
onlyslight
6o SPIRIT AND MATTER

differences constantly and imperceptibly shade into

each other, so that no line of demarcation can any-
where
be drawn between modern
spiritualism and the
universal psychical or religious knowledge of
all past

ages and all peoples.

In all history the fact stands out undisputed that
the great principles of modern spiritualism have
never been denied among mankind, save by a few
modern teachers whose inquiries have been purposely
confined, by deliberate choice or narrowness of vision,
to the gross material plane alone, and a multitude of
their ignorant followers, who, in believing that they
have accepted the hypotheses of these philosophers,
have, in fact, garbled them beyond recognition.
Besides these, the boasted doctrine of negation, or

agnosticism, has only included the lower animals,

and not, it is probable, even all classes of these.
Modern spiritualism is thus not a new thing its "

denial is the new thing, and it ought not logically to

stand at the bar of science to establish its facts ; they
have been already established, for it has more and
more been proven, and is now firmly established,
that no belief universal in scope and in time has ever

been without a foundation of truth for its basis. It

is upon and by means of these very truths that science
itself has been established and developed.
spiritualism gladly accepts the challenge, for
But
it clearly recognises that only in the continuance and

multiplicity of obvious spiritual phenomena can the

truth of a future life be made universally manifest.
The fountain must continue to flow in order to prove
that it has ever flowed, for the forces and mechanism
*'

are, and must be, the same yesterday, to-day and

for ever.*'
62 SPIRIT AND MATTER

requisite the
quality, whole productwill go to pieces
and the manufacture will be a failure. The same is
true of delicatemetallurgicalmanipulations ^the "

conditions must be most carefully and their

studied,,
demands must be fullyacceptedand rigidlycomplied
with, failure, e ven then, following frequentlyas
as

success, in many cases.

But in investigatingspiritualism,
every condition
prescribed,not by the medium or by the spirits
perhaps,but by those forces which are about to be
investigated, is looked upon as an evidence of fraud.
Scientific men have demanded the rightto prescribe
their own conditions in an investigation of which they
do not claim to know even the first principles.
But they do not stop to consider that these
contacts, and transmissions, and phenomena, are
between intelligent individualities, through exceed-
ingly
imperfectinstrumentalities at best,and that the
possibilities of communication depend on a multitude
of conditions largelyunknown to us, and almost
entirelyunknown to and untried by the communi- cating
** "
intelligences themselves. Scientific vestigator
in-
of this sort have a totallyunwarranted
superstition, as a rule, which can only be ascribed to a
"
survival from the ages of faith,'' and which is that a
disembodied spirit, if there be such a thing,as soon as

it has left its earthlytenement, becomes a sort of

littlegod ; that it instantly changes into an extremely
intelligent, extremely powerful, and practically
omniscient and omnipresent being, and that, not-
withstanding
all this,it can still be summoned and
ordered about at will,not like the geniiof the East,
by means of a talisman whose power they recognise
and obey,but at^the will of a sceptic, whose authority
they do not recognise, and whose conditions they do
not and cannot, by their very nature, accept, and
whose attributed powers they do not claim to possess.
Who are the people to be benefited by these
manifestations, grantingthat they are genuine? Is
it those who have lived their lifeon earth,and gone on
to new duties and new progressions, or those to whom

they return under untold difficultiesto deliver a

 SPIRITUALISM AND SCIENCE 63

message which will convince a doubting world, left

behind for ever, of their continued existence,and so
make life for us here nobler and better and higher?
They do not need us at all that is certain,for we "

know that when we shall have passed beyond, if

future lifeexists,
our thoughtsand hopes and advance-
ment
will be no longerchained to a mortal world.
Everybody who considers or believes in a future life
at all believes this. And in such case, if there be a

call at all,
it can only be the call of pure benevolence,
or else the dark shadow of earth-bound crime or

sorrow, which bringsor binds the here

spirit ; and to
lay down rules and conditions without thought,
" "
knowledge or consideration ; to demand results
under penalty of condemnation as frauds ; to put
them under a cold, merciless questioningin which
every and
higheraspectis ridiculed, a tion
catch-examina-
carried for exposure
on this is the "
same as for
a drowning man to spitin the face of one who would
come to his rescue. It is of these that Christ said
"
they would not be persuaded, though one rose from
the dead.''
Imagine the actors who would be willingto act|
gratuitouslybefore an audience of scoffers and,
hooters. It is said in the New Testament that even \
Jesus was unable to produce any considerable |
manifestations among the people of Nazareth, I
*'
because of their unbelief ''
(Matthew xiii. 58 ; Mark I
vi.5).
Spiritualistsdo not claim that the surviving
*'
which
personalities manifest themselves are little
''
gods at all ; they are, many times, chatteringold
^

women, or babbling curates, as Huxley describes ^

them. The question is not whether they have f
suddenlybecome sublimated into celestial paragons
by merelyescapingfrom a putrefyingand disintegrat-
ing
but whether
garment of flesh, they escape at all.
What these chatterers and twaddlers,when they are

chatterers and twaddlers,seek

is to convey to to do
us the actual certaintyof what religion asks us to
accept in many cases by mere faith,as faith is often
understood. The generalof an army in a difficult
64 SPIRIT AND MATTER

and unknown country,with the unseen enemy hidden

in front,does not ask that the poor ignorantslave,
the loyalpeasant, or the devoted partisanshall come
in from beyond the front,and stand up and speak in
terms of educated styleor scientific accuracy. What
the generalwants to know is where this messenger
comes from, what he has seen, how he has escaped,
and information about the country and the people
beyond. And to secure this,so as to produce con-viction

of the truth of the statements, he does not

rely upon a singleincomer, or messenger ; but he
picksup dozens,if he can, of all sorts and conditions,
persons who are most unlikely to have been together
previously, or who could have conspiredto get up a
story to deceive. Here is where good judgment and
sound reason come in, and here is where the com-
mander

proves his rightto command, and by this

test his fitness is determined, and the campaign
carried on to success. There is no other way.
Consider the oppositecase. Suppose the mander
com-
''
should say, The personalscouts I have sent
over have not returned ; I do not know what is
beyond ; those who purport to come into our lines
from over there ignorant and uncultured, and
are

though I can readilyunderstand them, and they

come from all parts of the country beyond, and all
reportthe same state of affairs, yet I take no interest
in what they say, even if the facts are true, and, in
fact,I don't believe, on a priori principles,that there
''
is any other force over there anyway ; and, instead
of investigating, should go back to the rear with his
staff,to deliver a lecture on protoplasm as the
physicalbasis of life,at an honorarium of three
hundred dollars.
An amusing instance came to me recentlyof this
twaddle apparently educated
business "
an man

narratinghis experiencewith a medium. He said

that he intended to apply a test which would satisfy
him, and so he wrote a name and a questionon one
piece of paper, and another name and another
questionon a second pieceof paper, both the names
being of persons now dead but whom he had known
 SPIRITUALISM AND SCIENCE 65
here. These papers he concealed in his pocket. The
medium called out one name and the corresponding
question,and, as the narrator stated,the question
was answered
correctly " ^because it was an easy one,
he said.
"
The medium then said, You have another name

and questionon another pieceof paper, and the spirit

'
whose name is thereon written says you ask, What
"
is ?'
electricity
"
The narrator said to me, I put that on as a

certain test,because if she was a spiritshe would

certainly
know, and if she didn't answer correctly I
would know that the medium was a fraud, and the
" "
spirit
bogus." Well," I asked, what answer did
"

you get ?
The answer, he said,was that in his present
state knowledge she could not convey
of to him an

explanationwhich would satisfyhim, but that if he

was there as she was, he would know and feel the
nature of the answer.
" " *'
Well ? I said. Why, that was all tommy-
"
rot,"he replied, and convinced me that the whole
affair was bogus."
I asked him if he knew what electricity
was, and
he said no, that that was what he wanted to find out.
I asked him if the friend (a professedto girl),who
''

answer, knew what it was before her death. No,

certainly he
not," replied. Then I asked him why he
expected her to know as soon as she passedover into
"
spiritlife, and his reply was, Why, if she was a

spirit, she would know everything, of course."

Mrs Ross Church, who assisted Sir William
Crookes in many of his Katie King investigations, in
''
her wonderful book, There is no Death," says :
'*
There are two classes of peoplewho have done more
harm to the cause of spiritualism than the testimony
of all the scientists has done good, and those are the
enthusiasts and the sceptics. The first beheve
everythingthey see or hear. Without givingthem- selves
the trouble to obtain proofsof genuinenessof
the manifestations, they rush impetuouslyfrom one
acquaintanceto the other,detailing their experiences
66 SPIRIT AND MATTER

with so exaggerationand such unbounded

much
faith that they make the absurdityof it patent to all.
They are generallypeopleof low intellect, credulous
dispositions, and weak nerves. They bow down
before the influences as if they were so many little
gods descended from heaven, instead of being,as in
the majority of instances,spirits a shade less holy
than our own, who, for their very shortcomings, are

unable to rise above the atmosphere that surrounds

this gross and material world.
"
Who has not sat at a seance where such
people
have made themselves so ridiculous as to bring the
cause they profess to adore into contempt and
ignominy ? Yet to allow the words and deeds of
fools to affect one's inward and privateconviction
of a matter would be tantamount to givingup the
pursuitof everythingin which one's fellow-creatures
can take a part.
*'
The second class to which I have alluded " the
sceptics ^have not done so much harm to spiritualism
"

as the enthusiasts, because they are, as a rule,so

intenselybigoted and hard-headed and narrow-

minded, that they overdo their protestations, and

render them harmless. The sceptic refuses to believe
anything, because he has found out one thingto be a
fraud. If one medium deceives,aU the mediums
must deceive. If one seance is a failure, none can

be successful. If he gainsno satisfactory test of the

presence of spirits of the departed,no one has ever
gained such a test. Now, such reason is neither just
nor logical.Again, a sceptic fully expects his
testimony to be accepted and beheved, yet he will
never believe any truth on the testimonyof another
person. And if he is told that, given certain condi- tions,
'
he can see this or hear the other,he says, No !
I will see it and hear it without any conditions, or else

I will proclaimit to all a fraud.' In like manner, we

might say to a savage, on showing him a watch,

'
If you will keep your eye on those hands, you
will see them move round to tell the hours and
*
minutes,' and he should reply, I must put the
watch into boilingwater " those are my conditions
 SPIRITUALISM AND SCIENCE 67

and if it won't there, I will not believe it will

" go

at all.'
go
"
I don't mind a sceptic myself, as I said before,

but he must be unbiassed, which few sceptics are.

have decided the question at issue

As a rule, they
for themselves before they commence to investigate
it."
 CHAPTER X

EXPERIMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY

I HAVE spoken in a previouschapterof the identityof

spiritualistic manifestations with those embodied in
the records of various historic reUgions. Almost all
ethnologists, anthropologists and students of com-
parative

religionand folklore are fullyaware of the

remarkable identitybetween the various spiritualistic
)}juP
phenomena encountered in diverse ages, and through-
out
the world. In fact, wherever tapped,we find the
human strata flow with the same phenomena and the
same beliefs, in their originand mode of operation.
^^" But I may mention here, more as a specific
illustration than as a corroboration,the state of
spiritualismin the oldest as well as the vastest
empire on earth, the Chinese. I would refer to an

unimpeachable source also,as the whole evidence is

from Christian experts,experts not only in our own
but
religion in the language and
life, customs of the
Chinese themselves. Much of this can be found in
the remarkable book by the Rev. Dr John L. Nevius,
for fortyyears a missionaryin the interior of China,
"
entitled Demon Possession and Allied Themes,
principally in China,'' and the introduction to which
work was written by the Rev. Dr EUinwood, Secretary
of the American Board of Foreign Missions of the
PresbyterianChurch. The work was pubUshed in
" "
1894. We must discount the Demon element
in the title, as that is a concession to the theological,
but not psychological,differentiation predicated
between these phenomena and those of our Bible,
and other bibles of other peoples. Dr Nevius, who
was a very eminent Chinese scholar,did not relyupon
his own observations alone,but, as he states,he sent
68
70 SPIRIT AND MATTER

among a few
personal friends only, that there is
absolute truth in these manifestations, be their
sources what they may, and that they are extra-
human in character,and are, at all events, entirely
compatiblewith the universal belief, which has always
prevailed,as to the validityand character of the
phenomena. Startling effects need not be expected,
but they are unnecessary, for the slightest results
are of just as much importance to the scientific
investigator as those of the most astounding char-
acter.
And latter will sometimes
even these occur
most unexpectedly. But a single experiment is
worthless.
totally Pat, on beingtold that feathers in
a pillowwere nice to lie on, took a feather and laid
it on a rock, and socked his head down on it"

*' ''
Howly blazes,'' he ejaculated, if one of thim is as
"
hard as that,what would a whole pilly-fuU be like ?
No one need expect to learn anything practically
about spiritual phenomena who is not willingto give
time, patienceand continued labour,and incur some
expense besides. The same is true of chemistry,
geology,or even of work in a machine shop. There is
a literature to be studied ; there are materials
whole
to be procured; there are mediums to be consulted
and often rejectedafter many consultations ; there
are times and conditions to be observed ; there
must be thought,study,comparisonand investigation.
One must go through this education, just as
education of every other sort must be acquired. But
as a chemist after long study and practice becomes
recognisedas an authorityin chemistry,so the same
is true of a mathematician, a geologist, an astronomer,
an anatomist, or a student of any branch of science
or knowledge ; but it is far different in the science
of spiritualism. Here among so-called men of science
the very oppositeopinionprevails ; not only do they
refuse to investigate themselves, but they consider
that those who have investigated longestand most
carefully know least about it,and are not only arrant
frauds,but arrant fools as well.
"
There is an Arabic proverb which says, Ask
'*
advice of the traveller, not of the learned ; but in
 EXPERIMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY 71
these cases the rule is to turn the traveller out of
court, to deny him a hearing,to pour contempt and
obloquy upon him, and then sit down in a comfortable
library,after a good dinner, and prove that what
they thought he meant to say was all a pack of lies,
and that,irrespective of his credibilityor experience
as a witness,on the broad ground of immaculate,
heaven-sent and
infallible a priori,
not the genuine
a priorihowever, but their own little,vain,ignorant,
and perpetuallyexploded a priori.That is the
thimble-rig by which the ball can be put under any
cup by these ingeniousand self-satisfiedcharlatans.
How any branch of knowledge could be success-
fully

pursued under such conditions it is impossible

to understand. But it is by no means necessary, for
it is well known that the world of science has always
advanced by impacts from without, and not by
movements from within. Whenever the aggregated
movements reach a certain momentum, and produce
a certain outside pressure, the world of science,like
an amoeba, takes them into its body, and adjusts
itself to a new centre of gravity,and then rests as
a whole again, while the processes of deglutition,
digestion, assimilation and nutrition proceed within.
When another great series of facts presses upon it
with sufficient force,the process is repeated,and it is
thus that science has grown. This conservatism is
often of value, but that the process described has
been the actual pursued, anyone
one can readily
demonstrate that all the
by considering facts of all
the natural sciences were discovered and porated
incor-
and that, in
successively, any science,it is
only necessary to go back few years to find a totally
a

different set of facts,a totallydifferent set of tions,

deduc-
and totallydifferent hypotheses and theories.
The same will be true in the future,and that science
only deserves the name which is ever and willingly
shiftingits ground, and thereby ever advancing.
There is no advance in what stands still; there is no
discoveryin the fear of what may be discovered ;
and there is no truth in concealment to save a

theory. There is rascality

there.
^2 SPIRIT AND MATTER

One of the most inexplicable things in the whole

history of human knowledge has been the attitude

which modern science in general, and especially
through of its recognised leaders, has taken
many
with reference to the question of extra-human sciousness.
con-

It is not that it was a new question

it the question was as old mankind,
sprung upon " as

and was always proven and accepted as by

proven
mankind in general ;
it was not that it was portant,
unim-

because it is concededly of transcendent

importance. If human consciousness itself is the

highest of all human things, then its origin, develop-

ment
and extension are of its very essence. The
fundamental difficulty, in reality, was not that

consciousness should survive after the transition

called death, or that it should be an extension or

focalisation or development of an extra-human lying

out-

consciousness ;
these were not the primary
difficulties, but the fact that consciousness should

exist at all. It was only by an unscientific familiarity

with this fact that its recognition as a fact was not

accorded its stupendous importance ;

for the thing
itself, if conceded, takes away
in the concession nearly
the entire difficulty in recognising or demonstrating
other forms or survivals of consciousness. If men

can be known to live at all in Europe, it is not much

more difficult to accept the demonstration that men

also live in Asia or America, or that the men of one

country have been derived from sources in other

countries, by immigration or accident.

 CHAPTER XI

THE BAN OF a pHori

It is an astoundingthingthat men of science, instead

of studying the forms of consciousness in general,
with the same care and labour which they have be- stowed
upon types of paleontologyand their con- nections,

and without bias or prejudice,should

abandon all this field at hand, and go back for a ,

''
basis to a hypothetical qualitycalled irritability,''
which was then compared with physiological bile
'' "
secretion or the aquosity of water, and endeavour
to thus painfully trace, with futile results, the long
line of consciousness up to a Shakespeare. And, in
the face of all this.Professor Tyndall was stillhonest
enough to declare that between matter and mind
there existed an intellectually impassable chasm ;
Huxley declined to accept the title of a materialist,
and yet many leaders of these classes of physicists
left the whole realm of livingnature at their feet and
all around them, to burrow in soil replete with death,
and not with life.
Dean Swift,in his celebrated tale of Gulliver,
had
his mythical hero discover a place where the
philosophersand men of science spent their whole
lives amid filth and nastiness, in endeavouring
to extract the already expended sunshine from
cucumbers, or restore offal to its food state
human
again,and we must indeed go to such sources to find
'
an analogue. Huxley himself,in his answer to Mr
Gladstone and Genesis,'* in
defined science, his lucid
style,
as follows : "

*'
To
my mind, whatever doctrine professes
to be
the result of the application
of the acceptedrules of
inductive and deductive logicto its subjectmatter,
73
74 SPIRIT AND MATTER

and accepts,within the Umits which itself,

it sets to
the supremacy of reason, is science. If nothingis to
be called science but that which is exactlytrue from
beginningto end, is very little
I am afraid there
science in the world outside mathematics. Among
the physicalsciences I do not know that any could
claim more than that each is true within certain
limits,so narrow that, for the present at any rate,
they may be neglected.''
But when a committee of the London Dialectical
Societywas formed,in 1868-1869, to investigate these
very questions, and, if possible, extend these hmits,
and composed of thirty-three of the most capable
men in Great Britain, of whom the celebrated
Alfred R. Wallace was one member, and the Rev.
Dr Charles Maurice Davies,of the Enghsh Church,
another, and Mr Huxley was invited to become a

member, to investigate these very questions, in the

precisemanner demanded by him, for science,he
repliedas follows : "

*'
Sir " I regret that I am unable to accept the
invitation of the Council of the Dialectical Society
to co-operate with a committee for the investigation
' '
of spiritualism; and for two reasons. In the
first place,I have no inquiry,which
time for such an

would involve (unlessit were

much trouble and
unlike all inquiries of that kind I have known) much
annoyance. In the second place,I take no interest
' '
in the subject. The only case of spiritualismI
have had the opportunity of examining into for
myself,was as gross an impostureas ever came under
my notice. But supposing the phenomena to be
genuine they do not interest me.
"
If anybody
would endow me with the facultyof listening to the
chatter of old women and curates in the nearest
cathedral town, I should decline the privilege,
having
better thingsto do.
''
And if the folk in the
spiritualworld do not talk
more wisely and sensiblythan their friends report
them to do, I put them in the same category.
"
The onlygood that I can see in a demonstration
 THE BAN OF A PRIORI 75
' '
of the truth of
spirituahsm is to furnish an ditional
ad-
argument against suicide. Better Uve a
crossingsweeper than die and be made to talk
* '
twaddle by a medium at a guinea a seance. I am,
sir,etc., T. H. Huxley.
''
2(jthJanuary 1869."

An eminent writer,commenting on this ex- traordinary

letter, remarks :
*'
If (as the Professor would probably have ad- mitted)
a very largemajority of those who daily
depart this life are persons addicted to twaddle,
persons whc.e pleasuresare sensual rather than
intellectual whence
" is to come the transforming
power which is suddenly,at the mere throwing off of
the physical body, to change these into beingsable to
appreciate and delightin high and intellectual pur- suits
? The thing would be a miracle,the greatest
of miracles,and surelyProfessor Huxley was the last
man to contemplateinnumerable miracles as part of
the order of nature ; and all for what ? Merely to
save these 'people from the necessary consequences of
their misspentlives. For the essential teaching of
spiritualism is,that we are all of us, in every act and
* '
thought,helpingto build up a mental fabric which
will be and will constitute ourselves,more pletely
com-

after the death of the body than it does now.

Just as this fabric is well or illbuilt,so will our pro- gress
and happinessbe aided or retarded.*'
Is not this of importance enough to interest a
philosopher or a physicist ? Can anyone for a
moment consider the stupendous results to every
individual, to the whole human race present and
future, to the cause of education,morality and
justice, to have it known beyond doubt or question,
and to the meanest as well as to the highestintellect,

that, as we sow here we shall reap there ; that

ignorance here developsits full penalties there ; that
wrong and oppressionhere must be paid for in
agonisinggrowth again from far down in the scale,
and over long,long periodsof time, tillfinal release
shall come by toil and privation compared with which
76 SPIRIT AND MATTER

every unjustpleasurehere is not of a feather's weight,

and that even then the endless,remorseful memory
will perhaps remain was " all this a thing not of
sufficient interest to make it worth some trouble and
annoyance ?
The same criticisms original
were made upon all
investigators "
when Franklin
experimented with
his kites,his work was ridiculed in similar fashion,
and when his papers on lightningconductors were
exhibited to the French Academy they were
*'
ignominiously thrown out. He was asked Of what
''
use is all this kite-flying ? and his noble replystill
has, with accumulated momentum, its originalforce
'' ''
" Of what use is a baby ?
The baby now carries mankind on the wings of
the wind, speaks through the free air from continent
to continent,and will soon be the dominating power
of the world, and Franklin, even though he had
done no more, would stand at the front among the
great apostlesof science. Where now are his de-
tractors
?
In writer
1869 a in The New York Tribune narrates
a conversation with Herbert
Spencer,on the question
of the communion of spirits with mortals,in which
'*
Mr Spencer met the facts by saying that he had
settled the questionon a priorigrounds.''
This is the favourite,in fact the only way, in
which this questionhas ever been settled againstthe
facts.
But Alfred Russel Wallace, in consideringthese
says : **Ifthere
subjects, is any onethingwhich modern
philosophyteaches more consistentlythan another,
it is that we can have no a prioriknowledge of natural
phenomena or of natural laws. But to declare
that
any facts,testified to by several independent wit-
nesses,
are impossible, and to act upon this declara-
tion
so far as these facts when
to refuse to examine
is to lay claim to this very a priori
opportunityoffers,
knowledge of nature which has been universally
givenup." Ah no ! The problems of nature and life
are of this sort.
not To ape the a prioriof science
is to ape the a priori of God.
 CHAPTER XII

SUMMARY OF PART I.

In the previous part of this work I have endeavoured

to show that the basis of all religions,of whatever

race, country age, or

was the same, and that this
basis is precisely identical with the claims and
practices of modern spiritualism. I also endeavoured
to show that none of these various religions ever
claimed to be the sole source of the phenomena fested
mani-
atbirth, if any of them
their can be said to
have had a birth, excepting with the birth of man
*'
himself, for, as Tylor says, in his Primitive
''
Culture,'' The thoughts and principles of modern
Christianity are attached to intellectual clues which
run back through far pre-Christian ages to the very
origin of human civilisation,perhaps even of human
existence/'
I have also endeavoured to show that this versal
uni-
belief, in all times andages, and among all
peoples, is valid evidence of its truth "
^that is to say,
it was either created into man when man was first

created, or else was revealed to him as a spiritual

complement, and these spiritual powers were put
into his possession,with spiritualintercommunication
between the individual intellects or spiritsof the race,
and also with outside contact with and recognition
of that other and higher and vaster part of intellect
'*
or spiritin which we live and move and have our

being."
I have endeavoured to deal with religion as a
whole as well as with its special sub-religions or
divisions,and these different religions may be com-
paratively

higher or lower in the scale as we may

conceive them, but they are God's living and mani-

F 8x
82 SPIRIT AND MATTER

testingwitness in every age and to every people;

and I have shown that the grand psychicalconcep-
tions
underlyingthem are fundamentallyas high and
pure in the earliest as in the later ages, and among
peopleslow in the scale of humanity as among those
higher.
Human dwellings,be they dug-outs,or of mud,
stone,brick or marble, and however diverse they may
be in extent, architecture or external appearance,
are substantiallyidentical within. Some
larger are

and better furnished,some have many chambers,

others but a few ; but every one has a recognised place
for cooking,one for eating, one for sleeping, and one
for rest,ease and the higherlife, and we note these
thingsat once, and they are the evidences to us that
each is a dwelling-place for men, simply because men
are essentially alike,and the wants and adaptations
and satisfactions of one are the wants and adapta-
tions
and satisfactions of all.
The view
intelligent bringsthe common tion,
revela-
because it comes from the experiencesof our
common humanity. So it is with the recognition of
the Divinityand of the future life, which are parable.
inse-
God reveals Himself through all religions,
justas humanity reveals itself through all dwelling-
places,and our religious knowledge could not be so
uniform unless there were a common source of in-
tuition
knowledge,and the onlypossible
and source is
revelation, free and uniform, from a divine original,
which, while working on a livingfree will in men, is
''

yet the same yesterday,to-day and for ever."

Let me quote here the followingfrom Professor
J. Estlin Carpenter,of Magdalen College, Oxford : "

''
But we now know that the Bible is by no means
the only collection of religious teachingwhich anti- quity
created. The last century has brought to light
the mighty literatures of the empires and peoplesof
the East. From the Nile to the Ganges, from the
ancient mounds of Mesopotamia to the temples of
China and Japan,whole libraries have been recovered,
showing that everywhere among the more advanced
peoplesrehgionhas embodied itselfin law and hymn.
 SUMMARY OF PART I. 83
in story and prayer. The student finds againthat his
idea of revelation must be widened ; he cannot clude
se-

one literature in a sacred enclosure,

and declare
all the profane. He must franklytreat all by
rest
the same methods, apply to all the same tests,and
judge all on the same principles.In doingso he wins
one result of incalculable importance. Religion
appears as something that is practically universal,
a part of the higher experienceof the whole race.
That may not be a demonstration of its truth. But
it proves that in one side of his nature man has been
alwaysseekingafter the unseen ; and in one aspect his
efforts to find it may be described as the response of
his spiritto the constant appeal of the boundless
'
world confrontingand surrounding him, Under- stand
me, interpret me, trust me, and work with me/
'
and he adds, to these testimonies each generation
makes its own additions,so that the record con- tinually
''
gainsin weight and significance.'
*'
Romanes defines religion as follows : By the "

term religionI shall mean any theory of personal

agency in the universe belief in which is strongenough
in any degreeto influence conduct.''
That is to say, religion demands, acknowledges,
and is essentially based upon a personal,spiritual,
superhuman, operativeagency in the universe acting
upon man. Bear in mind that personaldoes not
imply personalityin the human sense (the Bible
tells us God is a spirit), althoughwe do not yet know
*'
the extent and scope of what we call our ality
person-
"
; it certainly,as we now know, transcends our

physicalbody, and has phases and connections far

transcendingwhat, only a few years ago, science
ignorantly decreed it to be.
Spiritualismin all its broader aspects is thus
included in religion ; but not that emasculated
system of earth-bounded morality,without religion,
or without regard to religion, which passes under
the name of ethics,and ethical culture,pure and
simple,and which has its cult,as Comte tried to
manufacture a god,out of a compositehumanity,just

as photographers make a composite photograph of

84 SPIRIT AND MATTER

a thousand women, or other people, to show the

''
type/' when the result is to show an ingeniously
contrived picture of a monstrosity which never
existed on earth or elsewhere,and without sense, soul
or intellect a sort of Frankenstein, with disjecta
"

membra juxtaposedfrom everywhere,and with soul

and individuality lost in the nowhere.
Ethics is all rightin its place,but it is a conse-
quence,
not a cause, of what each one
not thinks he
believes,
or believes he thinks that he would like to do,
but of learningwhat he ought to do ; and there is no
learningwithout a better informed teacher,and no
knowledge which does not come from a highersource
of knowledge;simple, common, cheap,physical evolu-
tion
in itselfnegatives all such factitious and sporadic
systems : no stream can rise higherthan its source.
*'
These are the moral satisfactions,'' says
''
Romanes, which always land us in misery." This
distinguished writer and man of science well says, in
*'
his latest writings: Physicalcausation cannot be
made to supply its own explanation,and the mere
persistenceof force, even if it were conceded to
account for particular cases of physicalsequence,
can give no account of the ubiquitousand eternal
direction of force in the construction and maintenance
of universal order."
*'
To account for this universal order,"he tellsus
''
in another work, it seems but reasonable to conclude
that the integratingprincipleof the whole " ^the
Spirit, as it were, of the Universe must be something "

which,while holdingnearest kinshipwith our highest

conception of disposingpower, must yet be im-
measurably
superiorto the psychism of man."
"
And he defines nature as something which thus
becomes invested with a psychicalvalue as greatly
transcendingin magnitude that of the human mind
as the material frame of the universe transcends in
its magnitude the material frame of the human
*'
body
"

; and adds, if the ultimate constitution of

the philosophyof the Cosmos
all thingsis psychical,
' '
becomes a philosophy of the Unconscious only
because it is a philosophy of the superconscious."
86 SPIRIT AND MAJTER c^^o^
"
ings, Worship Mumbo-Jumbo in the mountains of
''
the moon/' The*''*'~set*entTikr
method is the only
correct method, but to confuse what passes for
scientificmethod, in deahng with these subjects,with
vahd scientific achievements,is to reason in a circle,
and beg the questionwhen the first breaik in con-
tinuity
is reached.
As for these achievements
concrete of physical
science,in the form of solid,boiled-down and per-
manently
settled questions,
fundamental in character,
subjectto no further revision,and goingto build up a
completed structure which, as it approaches com-
pletion,

will overhaulingof what has been

requireno
alreadysecured and built in,no reversal of what was
so confidentlybottled up and labelled,and no in- tellectual
shame for what was so boastinglyspread
out for the publicto admire and accept,I have already
quoted the words of Huxley, one of the most pro- minent
of the physicists of his day, so many of whom
soughtto crowd the minds with fancies in the guiseof
facts (as our school teachers do, with exploded
theories of physiology, and untenable hypothesesof
the action of unfamiliar foods and drinks,and all
sorts of ipse-dixitSy to the neglectof reading, writing,
ciphering, morals and conduct), but this eminent
''
authority nevertheless conceded that Among the
physicalsciences I do not know that any could claim
more than that each is true within certain limits, so

narrow that,for the present,at any rate,they may

be neglected/'
Now if this statement means anything at all,it
means that in order to learn the available amount of
actual and original scientific proof,and its true limits,
in any of the physicalsciences, one may take a pair
of compasses and describe the very minutest circle
''
he can possiblydraw, and then, the limits are so

narrow that,for the present,at any rate,they may be

neglected."
understand
I fully of
this, course, as appliedto the
scientific treatment and results in dealingwith the
greatfundamentals of science,but it is not I who say
this,but one of its greatestapostles.
 SUMMARY OF PART I. 87

Yet many eminent physicists of those days have

set up spirit^ as it
were,
Uke a lying malefactor, on so-

called trial, and who yet would hear no witnesses.

Even the tragic old church wanted witnesses to

properly damn a soul. But these dreamers, sitting

''
by the rushlight of a
fatuous a priori damned it
^

like a gentleman,*' without soiling their perfumed

''
fingers. But how ? "
As the Light Brigade, Theirs

not to reason why,'' charged with its sabres, a few

hundred strong, the forts, batteries and armies,

accumulated and prepared during of labour, and
years
then staggered back broken and defeated. Said the
*'
French marshal who looked It is magnificent,
on,
but it is not war."
 CHAPTER XIII

MIRACLES

In this second part of my book I shall endeavour

to deal especially with the relationship existing
more

between the methods of spiritualism and the method

of science, which is the only method of reaching truth
in our present stage of human existence, for even
intuitional knowledge, first-hand knowledge, must
stand at the bar of scientific method. As the sacred
''
writer says, we must prove all things, and hold fast
to that which
good/' is
One of the most powerful arguments of modern

physicists against so-called miracles has been based

on Hume's argument in the tenth chapter of his work

on Human Understanding, and this argument pleased
''
its author so much that he prefaced it by saying, I
flatter myself that I have discovered an argument
which, if just, will with the wise and learned be an

everlasting check to all kinds of superstitious

delusion."
He first states two definitions of
miracle, both of
a

which, by the way, are philosophically and scientific-

ally
defective. The first definition is that it ''is a

violation of the laws of nature," which it would only

be possible to assert if we assume that we know all the
laws of nature. But the Author of all the laws alone
knows all the laws, which could only reach us by
revelation, certainly not by human experience, and
this revelation is one of the very things which his

argument is intended to disprove.

"
The second definition is that it is a transgression
of a law by the Deity or by the
of nature interposition
of an invisible agent." The error is that if it is by the

Deity then it is not a transgression,because the Deity,

88
 MIRACLES 89
having been thus named by Hume, is assumed to be
the author and operator of all the laws of nature ; if
''
by of an invisible agent/'then, if
the interposition
the agent be alreadyknown, even if invisible,
it is not
a miracle at all,while,if it be unknown, it may yet
become known later on, as all known agenciesof
nature have become known ; so that it cannot be
considered a of
transgression any laws until mankind
has ceased to investigateand discover because
nothing more is left us to investigate and discover "

until
that is, mankind has ceased to exist,for certainly
mankind can never become omniscient,and at that
time it will not matter what the answer may have
been.
Hume then lays down his great discoveryas
''
follows :
" There must therefore be an uniform
experienceagainstevery miraculous event, otherwise
the event would not merit this application.And as
an uniform experienceamounts to a proof,there is
here a direct and full proof,from the nature of the
fact,againstthe existence
of any miracle,nor can

such proof be destroyed,or the miracle rendered

but by
credible, oppositeproofwhich is superior.''
an
'* "
If an universal experience is to have the
validity given to it by Hume, anyone can see that it
must have destroyedhis whole argument, since, as I
have shown, the universal experience of all past ages
throughout the world was for,and not against,the
facts of spiritualism, including so-called miracles,
so that those who solitarily endeavoured to deny
these were themselves settingup a miracle against
cold and sober law. But Hume himself, though used
as a cudgel by so-called men of science,was in no
sense a man of science at all, and his whole argument
has repeatedlybeen riddled into worthlessness, and
itsfalse assumptions and contradictions fullyexposed.
''
As Mr A. R. Wallace says, It is radically
fallacious, because if it were sound, no perfectly new
fact could ever be proved, since the first and each
succeedingwitness would be assumed to have versal
uni-
experienceagainsthim. Such a simple fact
as the existence of flying fish could never be proved if
90 SPIRIT AND MATTER

Hume's argument is a good one ; for the first man

who saw and described one would have the universal
experienceagainsthim that fish do not fly,or make
any approach to flying; and his evidence being
rejected,the same argument would apply to the
second,and so to every subsequent witness ; and thus
no man at the present day who has not seen a flying

fish alive,and actuallyflying, ought to believe that

such thingsexist/'
Thomas H. Huxley, writingon Hume's assumed
law of miracles,puts the matter in a nutshell,the
whole questionturningon the sufficiency of evidence,
which is what spiritualists have alwayscontended for.
'' ''
Nobody can presume," says Huxley, to say what
the order
of nature must be ; all that the widest
experience(even if it be extended over all past time
and through all space)that events had happened in a
certain way could justify,would be a proportionately
strong expectationthat events will go on happening,
and the demand for a proportionalstrength of
evidence in favour of any assertion that they had
happened otherwise. It is this weighty considera-
tion,
the truth of which everyone who is capable of
logical thought must surelyadmit, which knocks the
bottom out of all a priori objections either to ordinary
'
*
miracles or the efficiency of prayer, in so far as the
latter impliesthe miraculous intervention of a higher
power. No one is entitled to say, a priori, that
prayer for some change in the ordinary course of
nature cannot possiblyavail."
Romanes is equallyemphatic in his opposition to
'' "
Hume. He says, in his Thoughts on Religion :
**
As an illustration of impure agnosticismtake
Hume's a prioriargument againstmiracles,leading
on to the analogouscase of the attitude of scientific
men toward modern spiritualism.Notwithstanding
that they have the close analogy of mesmerism to
warn them, scientificmen are here quiteas dogmatic
as the straitest sect of theologians.I may give
examples which can cause no offence,inasmuch as

the men in questionhave themselves made the facts

publicviz.: refusing to go to a famous spiritualist;
 MIRACLES 91
refusing to try,in thought-reading[Note: On the
whole I have thought it best to omit the names].
These men all professedto be agnostics at the very
time when thus so egregiously violatingtheir philo-
sophy
by their conduct/*
And he is equallysevere with regardto faith. He
"

says : What a terrible hell science would have made

' '"
of the world, if she had abolished the of faith
spirit
even in human relations. The fact is,Huxley falls
'
into the common error of identifying faith with
'

opinion."
The distinction of course isthat, while faith is a
product of the intuitive and supernormal, opinionis
a product of the reason and normal. This will be
fullytreated in a succeedingchapter.
This questionof miracle is by no means as simple
,

as it might seem. ( The miracles of one age are the

scientificphenomena of the next^ The purpose, even,
of a miracle may be subserved perfectly if it be per-
formed
by means of natural laws unknown to the
performer,and received as a miracle by the observers,
equallyignorantof the same natural laws. And this
indeed may be extended, in our present state of
knowledge,to all phenomena the direct explanation
of which is unknown. A telepathically received
notice of a coming eclipse communicated in a dream to
an Indian medicine-man totallyignorantof the pos- sibility
of calculating eclipses, by
and him revealed to
his fellow-tribesmen, equallyignorant,as a prophecy
by a dream spirit, would in so far be a geniune
miracle, while to us behind the scenes it might appear
as an unconscious deception. Before the days of the
phonograph, had such an instrument been operated
in secret in any company, whether scientific or not,
there would have been but two possible explanations,
the one that it was fraudulent,and the other that it
was supernormal; and, excludingthe former,which
could have been done, the latter would have been the
onlypossible explanation, for all our scientificas well
as popular knowledge excluded as possiblethe
simultaneous renderingof the various tones and pro- gressions
of a multitude of instruments in a complex
92 SPIRIT AND MATTER

harmony, by means of a singlemetal pin travelling

along a singlegroove in a wax cylinder. Until the
days of Newton the tides were miraculous, and to this
day gravitation stillcontinues to be miraculous, and
so of all the fundamentals of knowledge or science
which have not been searched out and explained(not
merely named, for that is no explanation), and few of
them, if any, have been so searched out and explained.
'' ''
Do you believe in miracles ? I was sneeringly
asked in one of our discussions. I
my asked
''
what
questioner he meant by miracles,"and he plied,
re-
*'
I mean the New Testament miracles, such as
^^
changingwater into wine,and the like.'' Oh,''I said,
^'
I thought that you referred to real miracles,such as
the growing of a stalk of grass, or the chick in the
"

egg ; whereat he was surprised,for he evidentlyknew

all about such matters, which were, doubtless,not
miraculous at all. Then I told him that while I had
nothing to say, pro or con, as to the actual occur- rences

in questionto which he referred, yet I fully

believed in the scientific possibility of a great many
of the so-called Bible miracles,and that without
considering their divine origin in any exceptional sense

at all ; ,and that it seemed strange to me that while

sceptics' readilyaccept productionby a fortuitous
clashingof chemical atoms, of livingprotoplasm,a
most complicatedsubstance,they are ready to deny
the possibility of a like production,when mind and
purpose are superadded, of mere win^, a liquid
hardlycomplicatedin its compositionat all.) Perhaps
it was that the one was a record,and dangef'ous, while
the other was a pleasant fancy to the dilettanti.
The difference, chemically,between water and
wine is very slight, and, if wedding partiesin those
days were like some that I have attended,there would
have been quite enough carbon dioxide in the
atmosphere to supply that requisite element,outside
of other possiblesources ; and as for flavouring
ethers ! "

"
The river Rhine, it is well known,
Doth wash your city of Cologne ; "

But tell me, Nymphs ! what power divine

Shall henceforth wash the river Rhine ? -^
 94 SPIRIT AND MATTER

sized water-snake large live frog,a considerable

a

part of whose
cuticle had been alreadymacerated or

digestedaway, and the animal hopped off with a

grunt of thanks possiblytowards Nineveh, which
"

was a great country for bull-frogs.

As for the Resurrection, I have discussed that else-

where
in these chapters,with excellent authorityin
its favour, but in the present uncertaintyas to the
presence or absence of lifein doubtful cases, it is im-
possible
to argue the matter intelligently
until science
can present some simple and certain test of death,
which it has not yet been able to do.
Says Professor William H. Thomson, in his
address in 1892,before the Philosophical Faculty of
Columbia College: ''In the whole sisterhood of the
sciences it is biologywhich depends most on inference
for her very life.
Stripbiologyof everythingexcept
the concrete knowable,and itwould be hard to imagine
what a congress of biologists would find to talk about.
If they began with mentioning livingprotoplasm "

what is life ? how much" do they know ? that's

the word now know, that said protoplasm is living,
or not living,or how much living,or w^hen it
began to live, and what it does when it stops
''
living?
''
Professor Michael Foster says : The difference
between a dead human body and alivingone is still,
to largeextent, estimated
a by drawing inferences
'
rather than actuallyobserved.'
Even after death,bodies exhumed are often found
to have continued to grow hair,which, short and
scanty when buried,is now found to be long and
massed up.
The problem of lifeis enormouslylargerthan self-
styledphysicalspecialists ever dream it to be. Says
Lord Kelvin, in The Fortnightly Review, March 1892 :
*'
The influence of animal or vegetable life on matter
is infinitely beyond the range of any scientific inquiry
hitherto entered on. Its power of directingthe
motions of moving particles, in the demonstrated
dailymiracle of our human free-will, and in the growth
of generation after generationof plantsfrom a single
 MIRACLES 95
different
seed,are infinitely from any possibleresults
of the fortuitous concourse of atoms/*
''
Von Hartmann, in his Philosophy of the conscious/'
Un-
adduces an example, from the severing
one of the of this unconscious power of life :
annelids,
*'
If cut in two by a cross section nature builds up
^
each of the severed perfectanimal again/'
parts into a

reconstructing a head with its proper appendages for

the lower half,and a tail and its adjunctsfor the
*'
upper one. It would seem,''says Von Hartmann,
''as if there must be present in each of the severed
parts an idea of what was wanting in order to build
up again the whole typicalform of the species ; and ;

this idea is the pattern or model accordingto which

the unconscious works. From each of the cut ends
a minutedrop of protoplasm exudes, and this is
quicklyand deftlymoulded in each case into such pro-longations
of the alimentarycanal,the blood-vessels
and nerves, as are needed respectively for the upper
and lower half of the animal as a whole, several organs
in one of the reconstructed moieties having nothing
analogous to them in the other. Merely physical
causation, blind mechanism, cannot explainsuch a pro-
cess
:Will and Intellect must co-operatein the work."
Professor Thomson describes the development of
*'
a whale : When his material
body is too small to
be seen by the naked eye, dwellingin an ocean of food
the size of a pin'shead, he is a greater livingthing
than when his bulk is more than that of two thousand
men, because by that time he has outlived most of the
capacitieswhich were in that vanishingspeck of
matter with began. In that little mass
which he
of protoplasm there was something which not only
determined how every cell in his future body should
come into being,even as parts of legsand feet which
he would never use throughout his life, but keep
tucked up deep within his body ; but, doubtless
also that he should developsome thingsderived,not
from his parents,but from his grandparents."
''
Say Stewart and Tait,in their Unseen Universe,"
*'
We are led from these two great laws, as weU as
from the principle of Continuity,to regard,as at
96 SPIRIT AND MATTER

least the probable solution,that there is an

most
intelligent Agent operatingin the universe,one of
whose functions is to developthe universe objectively
considered ; and also that there is an intelligent
Agent
one of whose functions it is to developintelligence
and
life."
'^
So Professor says : Thomson
The facts of sleep
and awakening pointmore, in our opinion, to a visitor
from outside who can take up one of the two instru-
ments
as he chooses,in the human music-hall,and
can play with them any varietyof melodies,because
it is he and not the instrument who is the real cause

of the music."
'* '*
In fine,"say Stewart and Tait, we conceive
that the New Testament plainlyasserts that what
Christ accomplishedwas not in defiance of law, but
in fulfilment of it ; and that his ability to do so much
was simply due to the fact that his positionwith
reference to the universe was different from that of
any other man."
Even the virginconceptionof Jesus (which has
proved to be one of the most serious difiiculties con-
fronting

even many devout is not at all

believers) |
incredible or unscientific. Among the lower animals \
such examples are very common. Silkworms are

now habituallyhatched from virgineggs, as experi- ence

shows that they produce better fibre,and Dr
Loeb has recentlybeen hatching out starfish and
medusae indifferently by parthenogenesis, or bisexu-
ally,as he added a solution of magnesia salt or not to
the surrounding menstrum. Even among human
beingsthe productionsof largeportionsof a human
foetus,with many parts organised, from unquestion-
able
virgins, for example female infants of from two
to six years old,are not uncommon, and there are a
number of cases reportedin which whole foetuses are
found as false conceptionsin the male. Anyone
curious in these matters may read of many such cases
in Dr Gould's ''Curiosities of Medicine," a recent
''
work, or Dr Eve's Collection of Remarkable Cases in
Surgery,"publishedin 1857 by the J. B. Lippincottj
Company of Philadelphia.
 MIRACLES 97

Among the cases related in the latter work, which

were operatedsurgically,are (i)a female child of two
years and nine
months .pregnant with her sister "

death ; (2) Tumour in the rectum containingthe

debris of a foetus-extirpation(thecase of a little girl
aged six years); (3) A testicle containingfat,hair-
bony and cartilaginousformations castration ; "

(4) An imperfectlydeveloped foetus in the rightC^^y^i^-U-

testicle of an infant ; (5)Foetus in a foetus. In this jj ,

delivered of six '^^^

case a young woman was a living or

seven months' child,the latter having a largemem-

branous

sac containing a placenta and a dead

foetus of about four or five months ; (6) a human
foetus developed in the mesentery of a boy fourteen
years old " death. Another remarkable case is corded
re-

at lengthin this work of

girlof a two years
and nine months old, who apparentlywas afflicted
with ascites. She died about three hours after the
doctor's arrival, and he was permittedto make a post
mortem examination. Within the abdomen was a

large membranous sac, containing between three

quarts and a gallon of semi-putridyellow water.
'*
Within this cavity was found a monster, or im-
child
perfect and also an animal substance of a whitish
^

colour. The monster weighed onepound and four-

teen
ounces. The substance weighed two ounces,
was rather of an oval figure,and was connected to the
child from which it was taken by a cord that had
some faint resemblance to the umbilical." Of this
''
the author
foetus itself, says, Its thighswere drawn
up to the abdomen, and attached to it in places; the
left resting
on the shoulder and reachingas far as the
back part of the head ; the
rightrestingor pressing
on the back of the righthand.The left legis imper-
fect,
and lies back along the thigh,to which it has
grown. The rightleg is also imperfect,its foot is
suspendedover the head. On one
are three toes ; foot
on the other a small appearance
of two. From the
knees to the shoulder there is considerable perfection
of form. Its sex is indistinctly
marked the indica-
tions "

are of the feminine. The left arm should rather

be called a stump than an arm, it has no hand ; at
98 SPIRIT AND MATTER

the end of the stump is a nail. The rightarm is large

and long,it has three fingersand the thumb. The
head is very imperfect it rests upon
*
the breast be-
tween
the knees. It has neither ears nor eyes, not
appearance of any substitute for either ; no mouth,
nor anythingthat has a near resemblance to it. There
is on the left side of the face,or rather that regionof
the head which the face should occupy, a small pro-minence
which contained three teeth,one canine and
two incisors ; they are all about the size of the teeth
of a child of two years old. On the back part of the
head is hair of dark or rather of an auburn colour,
eightor nine inches long. The body is seven inches
long and ten inches in circumference. The thighs
six to eight inches in circumference. The arm five
inches long ; the stump not quite four inches in
length."
Certain psychicalphenomena of a suggestive
character accompanied the progress of this case.
''
She was of the ordinarysize of children at her age,
had dark hair and
eyes, and would have been hand-
some,
but for a gloom and melancholy that sat upon
her countenance, which made her appearance
peculiarlyinteresting.She looked like a child of
grief.Her countenance exhibited evidences of a
good understanding,and her littletongue confirmed
it. During the last nine months of her life she had
' *
stronglymarked, the longings of pregnant females.'*
It is very credible that by mere psychicalcontrol
and the substitution of order for disorder in develop-
ment,
such an offspring might have been born living
and perfectly formed, and reached adult life,to all
appearances similar to human beings produced by
the sexual union in the normal manner. Whether
it ever occurred or not I do not know, but such an

event is not at all incredible, and may have occurred

in other cases besides the one I am considering.It is
to me, indeed,a curious fact that criticsshould have
undertaken that it could not have
to prove occurred in
Judea, by showing that similar births had been re- ported

elsewhere,and that therefore all these cases

were to be rejected.
 MIRACLES 99

spoken of the dogmatic temerity of a

I have
physical specialistin dealingwith the problems of life
and mind, as foreignto him as physicalpursuitsare
to a dogmatic theologian. But there are paratively
com-

few of these physicalspecialists who will

turn on their own specialty and abuse it in the name
of a psychology of which they are, in such case,
concededly and necessarilyignorant. In fact,
instead of foulingtheir own nest, they are more apt
to conceal and pervert everythingwhich threatens it ;
''
they are ready to fightat the drop of a hat.'* But
when theologians of a certain type, filledwith a little
cheap and pinchbeck physical science, become
aroused, they bring to mind the opening words of
'' ''
Elizabeth Stuart Phelps in her Singular Life :
"
Perhaps there is no greater curiosityof its kind
than that of a group of theological students discussing
science."
Only recentlyan ecclesiasticaltrial has been going
on "
a clergyman of this type, of one of the churches
which claims its
hierarchyback to Peter,
to date
''
having written a book." This clergyman'sdefence
was that he believed the Bible,and was honest. But
*'
he wrote in his book, Jesus did not succeed because
He was born of a virginor because He was reported
to have arisen bodilyfrom the dead. These legends
concerningHim are the result,not the cause, of the
marvellous success of the man. These stories were

told of Him only because the simplefolk could in no

other way adequatelyexpress their conceptionof the

greatness of Jesus. Only a virgin-born could be as
pure Jesus; only a son of God could be as great
as

as Jesus ; only a life more powerful than death could

have the strengthof Jesus."
Now see his statement, which follows, of what he
*'
conceives to be a scientificfact. If we are told of a

certain
beingin human form, born of a human mother,
expressingconsciousness in human speech, livinga
human life and dying a human death, we naturally
predicateof such a one a human fatherhood as well as

a human motherhood, for universal experiencebears

witness to the fact that everyone who is the child of
100 SPIRIT AND MATTER

a human mother is also the child of a human father.

To overcome this presupposition, which is established
by universal experience,
would requiretestimony of
overwhelming force. The burden of proof lies with
those who deny, not with those who assert, the
validityof universal experienceto establish a given
fact."
Of course, this is Hume's infidel argument against
miracles,which I have justconsidered,and which all
men of science have long since abandoned, because,if
it were valid, science itself could never have had
a beginning,or, if science had been miraculously
plantedwhere it now is,it could not advance another
step. When such men as Alfred Russel Wallace,
George F. Romanes and Thomas H. Huxley unite
in demonstratingits fallacy, and, indeed, absurdity,
it is evidence of something extremely weak in the
mental constitution of a clergyman to have it
''
revamped in the hands of a so-called Christian,"to
attack the foundations of Christianity ! For, as St
*'
Paul has said,without this Our hope is vain."
Contrast this pseudo-scientific argument with
Thomas H. Huxley'snoble words on the same subject:
''
Strictly I
speaking, am unaware of anything that
' '
has the rightto the titleof an impossibilityexcept
a contradiction in terms. There are impossibilities
'
logical,but none natural. A round square,'a
' '

present past,' two parallellines that intersect,'

are impossibiUties, because the ideas denoted by the
predicates,round, present, intersect,are contrary
to the ideas denoted by the subjects, square, past,
parallel.But walking on water, or turning water
into wine, or procreation without male intervention,
or raisingthe dead, are plainlynot impossibilities in
this sense."
The burden of proof is quite the oppositefrom
if there is any God at all,
that of the critic, with any
considerable spiritual power. For example, if Christ
was altogetherdifferent from all other men recorded
in history,and if His system was enormously higher
''
than the system of all other men, then the supposition
pre-
"
is that He was created either
differently,
102 SPIRIT AND MATTER

nghteous man,'aAd not willingto

public make her a

example, was minded to put her away privily.But

when he thought on these things,behold, an angelof
the Lord appeared unto him in a dream, saying,
Joseph,thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee
Mary thy wife : for that which is conceived in her is
of the Holy Ghost."
Now
what the statement of this rational
theologianin his own book reallymeans is that the
mother was a deceiver ; the husband was a victim
of trickery; the son was ; his
illegitimate claims
were fraudulent ; his resurrection a lie ; and his
ascension either foolishness or blasphemy, just as
this critic has either relegated God to the same myth
as Christ,or stillleft him as a surviving superstition.
The crucifixion is the only scrap of reason left,and
of this,the same line of reasoning, and assumption
of facts a priori, would lead him to say, with Tacitus,
''
that Christus was criminal,''
put and,
to death as a

by the rational Jewish and Roman laws, justly.

Science, when properly understood, or when
looked at by a smatterer, givesno countenance
even

to such opinions at all. Its scepticismis much

broader,and is not directed againstthese few alleged
facts of Christianity, but againstthe basic principle
of every form of religion.There are very few men
of science who, if they had reached the stage of
acceptance of religionat all, would not accept
Christianity with all its marvels (forreligion itself is a
marvel, only to be acceptedby the recognition of the
marvel of marvels,mind and will, in man and outside
of man, with all its controlling spiritual powers),
as the best, highest,most scientific and common-
sense of all religions of all time. The only basis,
in fact, which such critics have, is that attitude of
causation which certain theological,
physical and most
writers have
physico-scientific, united in accepting
from a pervertedview of the smallest possible
a priori J
''

experience,and which, as Romanes says, grudges

God his own Universe.''
in the interior of Arkansas
It is said that once a

expelledtheir preacherfor lying.

Baptistcongregation
 MIRACLES 103
iHe narrated, on his return from a clerical visit to
IFort Smith, that he had seen men making ice a foot
Ithick. As the Lord could not make ice more than
(three and half inches thick in that country,
a in the

jwinter,to say
that a man could make it a foot thick
/ in the summer was a tale so contrary to reason and
j experienceas to be ridiculous, and the preacher was
jturned out of the church for his preposterous lying.
*' '*
Says Benjamin Kidd, in his Social Evolution :
*'
A rational religion is a scientific impossibility,
representing from the nature of the case an inherent
contradiction of terms."
Says G. H. Lewes (himselfan advocate of Comte),
in his ''Historyof Philosophy'':''There cannot,
consequently, philosophy,it is a con-
be a religious tradiction

in terms.'*
And Huxley, in Nineteenth
The Century of
"
February 1889,in dealingwith Comte's Religionof
"
Humanity," asserted that he would as soon worship
a wilderness of
apes."
I have alreadyquoted from Huxley that "It is
this weightyconsideration, the truth of which every-
one
who is capable of logical thought must surely
admit, which knocks the bottom out of all a priori
'
objectionseither to ordinary miracles,'or the
efficiency of prayer, in so far as the latter impliesthe
miraculous intervention of a higherpower."
"
Stewart and Tait, in their Unseen Universe,"
"

say, In fine,we conceive that the New Testament

plainlyasserts that what Christ accomplished was
not in defiance of law, but in fulfilment of it."
"
Lord Kelvin speaks of the demonstrated daily
miracle of our human free-will,"and much more, of
course, of the divine free-will.
Says Romanes, in his posthumous book,
" "
Thoughts on Religion": agnosticismis
Modern
performingthis great service to Christian faith : it
is silencing all rational scepticism kind.
of the a priori
In every generation, it must henceforth become more

and more recognisedby logicalthinking,that all

antecedent objectionsto Christianityfounded on

reason alone are ipso factonugatory." And again,

104 SPIRIT AND MATTER
'*
It is a
general,if not a universal,rule that those who
rejectChristianity with contempt are those who care
not for religionof any kind."
''
Haeckel, in his Riddle of the Universe,'' says :
''
I recommend those of my readers who are interested
in these momentous questionsof psychologyto study
the profound work of Romanes/' But Romanes
"

says the carnally-mindedwould not be affected by

any amount of direct evidence even though one rose
from the dead "
as indeed Christ shortlyafterwards
did."
Professor William H. Thomson, in his
"
Materialism and Modern
Physiologyof the Nervous
''
System," says : Incredulity is based wholly upon
supposedpersonalexperience, and will believe nothing
else. Hence, it cannot be reasoned with, as it is
always scornful in its reliance on this often most
fallacious testimony. This mental trait often
. . .

equallyillustrates its nature, as a mental weakness,

by the same persons who are incredulous about some
things,exhibitingin other things the most facile
credulity."
The space, too much, I fear,which I have givento
this case, is not on account of its individual portance,
im-
which is trifling,but to emphasise the fact
that one totallyunequipped to deal with such
questionsat all should plunge in, in the gratuitous
effort to disruptthe foundations of a great rehgion,
followingalone those old-time speculators who wrote
by a prioriin times when the means of actual know-
ledge
were not at hand ; and to furnish others with a

warningexample of how littlethey should be beguiled

by such sporadicand self-conceited writers,happily
combining in one effort,directlyor by implication,
'' "
the blatant ignorance or base vulgarity which
'*
Romanes applied,in like case, to those who care

o f
not for religion any kind," and so attack that one

which is nearest, and the head which is highest.

Such men, when properlyunderstood,are not danger- ous,
they are useful.
I think that few thoroughly capable men of
science,philosophyor religion, will now disputethe
 MIRACLES 105
'*
conclusion of Romanes, that the outcome of the
is,impartially
great textual battle [highercriticism]
considered,a signalvictoryfor Christianity,"
and
'*
that the Epistlesto the Romans, Galatians and
Corinthians,
have been agreed upon as genuine,and
the same is true of the Synopticsso far as concerns

the main doctrine of Christ Himself."

As
regards the so-called miracle of Belshazzar's
feast (and by the way, archaeologyhas now recovered
Belshazzar and all his simply a case
that
doings), was

of of a
slate-writing type familiar
everywhere to-day.
Not even prevision
was required,as the enemy was
alreadyat the gates,and attacking,and the end, to
an observer,was obvious. It is late in the day to
y "

discredit the possibility

of slate-writing. Sir William ^"^*^^^
Crookes long ago reportedthat he had seen a detached /^^/"./ ^^

hand down upon a table before him, in his home,

come
r/'a/f^i/'A
in full daylight,
strikingon the table with a solid body
producingloud sounds. While much is
slate-writing
fraudulent, there is an ample residuum of the
genuine.
Even the old creation narrative in the firstchapter
of Genesis,which is very ancient (but certainly not
so that later one in the second chapter),bears evidence
of divine revelation in a high degree,and would do
so in a still higher degree, if it v(^ere accurately
translated. Giving Brachit its correct sense, when
used in the construct state, as its form shows it to
'* "
be here employed, it means that the beginning
simply refers to beginningof the series of events
the
about to be described,justas old nursery tales began,
'* *'
Once upon a time," or a recipe in cooking, First,
catch your hare." But the three statements, first,
that grass grew before the appearance of the solar
body ; second, that the progression was from grass
to aquaticanimals, and thence to land animals ; and,
third,that the order of development was from fish
through reptilesand then birds, and thence to
mammals (which would seem to the uninstructed to
be most unnatural),are all strictly but were
scientific,
unknown even to science until very recently indeed.
"
I may add that the fear of spontaneous genera-
io6 SPIRIT AND MATTER

tion/'so-called,which seems to haunt the religious

mind as an ever-presentdanger,is all unnecessary.
Knowing as we do that livingprotoplasm is a machine
and not a chemical
compound, we know also that life
appeared comparativelyrecentlyon earth,and that
new forms of life are constantly arising,
so that some
''
time there must have occurred spontaneous genera-
tion/*
which,by the way, was not spontaneous at all,
but under direct control,as we now know that thing
every-
else is. Infact,thecareful student will see by the
languageused in the beginningof Genesis that some
** "
such spontaneous processemployed. The was

ordinarytranslation is accurate enough here,except

''
that the word translated God in theoriginalis Aleim,'*
''
a plural, and used with the pluralverb. And God
**
said.Let the earth put forthgrass,'* And the earth
''
broughtforthgrass," And God said.Let the waters
bring forth abundantly the moving creatures*'
(literally, swarm with swarmers) ; these were the
minute forms of animal life in the seas. Now here
''
comes a new word, God created the great sea-
** ''
monsters fashioned them),
(literally, Let the
earth bringforththe livingcreature." These were
the smaller forms of terrestriallife. But now again,
**
God the beast of the field.'* The minute
made and
simple beginningsof life,we thus see, are treated
from
quite differently these later and higher forms.
''
With a God in whom we live,and move, and
"
have being
our there is nothingspontaneous, except
in our own mind, and in God's will.
''
Benjamin Kidd, in his Social Evolution," well
''

says that the deep-seated instincts of society

have a
truer scientificbasis than our current science."
The miracles which occur within the confines of our
own bodies are, many times, as inexplicable as any
that are charged as occurring outside. The mere

process of metabolism is utterlyincomprehensible

if we run it out to its logicalconclusion ; and the
mental miracles are equally incomprehensible.So
hard-headed a materialist as Dr Hammond, whose
"
*'
its Derangements
Sleep and was written from the
*'
standpointthat when the brain is quiescentthere
 MIRACLES 107
is no mind/' was compelled,in one of his clinical cases,
''
to say of a somnambule, I was entirely satisfied that
she did not see at least with her eyes/'and again,
"

''
the sense of sightwas certainly not employed, nor
were the other senses awake to ordinaryexcitations."
In the case of MoUie Fancher, in Brooklyn, N.Y.,
who has been examined during many years by the
most eminent neurologists, we have surelya living
miracle. She has for many years been blind, par-alysed,
without apparent sensation, without food and
almost without drink, without the performance of
any of the ordinary bodily functions,and yet she is
bright,clear,intelligent, and I have recentlyseen a

letter received from her most beautifully and

correctly written and, as Dr Hammond
" said of his
''

case, She did not see at least with her eyes.*'

"

The phenomena attendingthe case of the Rev.

C. B. Sanders, D.D.,of Meridianville, Alabama, pub-
lished
in a little book, in 1876,entitled ''X+Y=Z;
or the SleepingPreacher/'are a series of miracles.
'' "
Stewart and Tait in their Unseen Universe cuss
dis-
the question of miracles very fully. They say :
''
Let us here pause for a moment and consider the
positioninto which science has brought us. We are

led by scientificlogicto an unseen, and by scientific

analogy to the spirituality of this unseen, ftn fine,
our conclusion is,that the visible universe has been
developedby an intelligence resident in the Unseen*:)
*'
Of the nature of this intelligent agency we are

profoundlyignorant,as far as science is concerned.

So far as science can inform us, it may consist of a

multitude ofbeings,as the Gnostics have supposed,

or of one Supreme Intelligence,
as is generallybe-
lieved
by the followers of Christ. As scientific men
we are absolutelyignorantof the subject. Nor can
we easily conceive information to be attainable
except by means of some trustworthy communication
between the beings resident in the Unseen and
ourselves. It is absolutelyand utterlyhopelessto
expect any lighton this point from mere scientific
reasoning.Can scientificreasoningtell us what kind
of lifewe shall find in the interior of Africa, or in New
io8 SPIRIT AND MATTER

Guinea, or the North atPole, before explorershave

been there ; and if this be so, is it not utterlyabsurd
to imagine that we can know anythingregardingthe
spiritual inhabitants of the unseen, unless we either
''

go to them or they come to us ?

These authors cite the fact, usuallystudiously
ignored on the one or side the other,but never on

both, for obvious reasons, that the doctrine of the

'*
Christian system is pre-eminentlyone of intellec-
tual
and
liberty, that while theologianson the one

hand and men of science on the other, have each

created inquiry,the early Christian
their barriers to
records acknowledge no such barrier, but on the con-
trary

assert the most freedom

perfect for allthe powers
of man.
'' "
We have now," they continue, reached a stage
from which
very easily
we disposeof any scientific
can

regarding miracles.
difficulty For if the invisible
was able to produce the present visible universe
with all its energy, it could,of course, a fortiori,very
easilyproduce such transmutations of energy from
the one universe into the other as would account for
the events which took placein Judea. Those events
are therefore no longer to be regarded as absolute
breaks of
continuity,a thing which we have agreed
to consider impossible,but only as the result of a

peculiaraction of the invisible upon the visible uni-

verse.

''
When
dig up an ant-hill,
we we perform an
operationwhich, to the inhabitants of the hill,is
mysteriouslyperplexing,far transcendingtheir ex-
perience,

but we know very well that the whole affair

happens without any breach of continuity of the laws
of the universe. In like manner, the scientific diffi-
culty
with regard to miracles will,we think,entirely
disappear,if our view of the invisible universe be
accepted,or if indeed any view be accepted which
impliesthe presence in it of livingbeings much more
powerful than ourselves. It is of course assumed
that the visible and invisible are and have been con-
stantly

in a state of intimate mutual relation."

The final conclusion of these writers is the follow-
 CHAPTER XIV

THE LIMITATIONS OF PHYSICAL SCIENCE

So long as religion,or its pervert theology rather, bars

the avenue against science with the dictum of dogma,
and the lash of anathema, its followers, like

frightened sheep, will hide in the recesses of the hills

and in caves ; and so long as science, or its pervert
materialism rather, bars the
way against spiritualism
with the dictum of a priori, and the lash of stition,
super-
its followers will also hide among the rocks,
speculating in what
they cannot see, and listening
for the shout of victory which never comes, and never

can come, from physical science. For physical

science, to be physical science, must of necessity steer
clear of the non-physical ; but if it unfortunately
does more, and denies it,then by this denial it cuts off
not only its connection with all the universals, but
leaves itself bare and naked when any of the great
final questions are asked.

Huxley found the realm physical

of exact science
"
small as I have already quoted, he says : If
very ;
nothing is to be called science but that which is

exactly true from beginning to end, I am afraid there

is very little science in the world outside matics.''
mathe-

But mathematics, considered as science, is

a

amenable precisely the same

to criticism. Jevons,
'*
in his *'
Principles of Science," says : I am inclined
to find fault with mathematical writers because they
often exult in what they canaccomplish, and omit to
point out that what they do is but an infinitelysmall
part of what might be done. They exhibit a general
inclination, with few exceptions, not to so much as

mention the existence of problems of an impractic-

IIO
 PHYSICAL SCIENCE iii

able character. This

may be excusable as far as the
immediate practicalresult of their researches is in
question, but the custom has the effect of misleading
the generalpublic into the fallacious notion that
mathematics is a perfect science,which accomplishes
what it undertakes in a completemanner On the con-
.
trary

it may be said that if a mathematical problem

were selected by chance out of the whole number which
might be proposed,the probability is infinitely slight
that a human mathematician could solve it. Just as
the numbers we can count are nothingcompared with
the numbers which might exist,so the accomplish-
ments
of a Laplace or a Lagrange are, as it were, the
little corner of the multiplication table, which has
reallyan infinite extent.*'
And this concealment of the difficultproblems,or
the incompatiblephenomena, is not confined to this
science,but extends to every science,and to nearly
every popularwriter on these sub jects .
In astronomy
the inexplicable and apparentlyirreconcilable facts
are studiouslyignored,and yet they must, unless
explained,eventuallyoverturn the whole accepted
cosmology as hitherto taught. For example, the
movements of the planetsaround the sun are ously
ingeni-
deduced from a series of purely hypothetical
movements assumed to occur within a slowly con- densing

gaseous, and finally liquefying and solidifying,

flattened sphere,rotatingin void space, and undis- turbed
by outside attraction. Yet our entire solar
system, sun, planets, satellites and comets together,
is itself moving, as a whole, almost directly to the
north with a velocityand momentum enormously
greaterthan all the internal movements of the system
combined, and the allegedoriginof the planetary
movements is not only inadequate to explain,but
irreconcilable with, this drift through space ; for all
the stars of space are themselves drifting in every
conceivable direction throughout space, without re-
gard

to each other,and at all sorts of velocities. This

great fact alone should make pause in the theories
propounded, but they have not done so, and there are
thousands of other facts but they
equallydivergent,
112 SPIRIT AND MATTER

are rarelymentioned or commented on ; and the

same is true of every other of the natural sciences.
The late President of the British Association, Lord
Salisbury, as I have alreadysaid, very graphically
picturedmankind, with all its boasted knowledge and
science,as occupying a small oasis of dim and
flickering lightin the midst of an illimitable ocean of
impenetrabledarkness.
There is one infallible test by which the genuine
man of science may always be known : if he devotes
his time and labour to, and manifests a strong interest
in,the observation and
investigation of those residua
which are not in accord with preconceivedopinion;
in the pursuitof alleged facts which do not fitinto the
scheme of hypothesesand theories with which he is
familiar ; if,in fact,he is earnestlyseeking,at all
times,for evidence againsthimself and his antecedent
views ; then that man is a genuinefollower of science.
But if,on the contrary, he closes his eyes and ears
againstalleged facts,and declines to investigate them,
under any terms and conditions, either from a priori
considerations of his own, or else from lack of interest,
that man, whatever his reputationor allegedac- quirements

may be among his followers, or his fellow-

men, is not, in the truest and best sense, a genuine
man of science.
The lines of human advancement are strewn with
the remains of such men, some of whom were reputed
great in their day and generation, but who have been
abandoned and overrun by their fellow-men or by
posterity,
as faithless to the sacred cause, and now lie
''
unhonoured and unsung,''for the penalty is as
inevitable as it is merciless,which truth exacts,
because these men not only bring true science into
disrepute, but effectuallyblock its highways.
As Jevons well says : ''In the writingsof some
recent philosophers,especiallyof Auguste Comte, and
in some degreeJohn Stuart Mill,there is an erroneous
and hurtful tendency to representour knowledge as
assuming an approximatelycomplete character. At
least these and many other writers fail to impress
upon their readers a truth which cannot be too
 PHYSICAL SCIENCE 113

constantlyborne in mind "

namely, that the utmost
successes which our scientific method can accomplish
will not enable us to comprehend more than an

infinitesimal fraction of what there doubtless is to

comprehend. Professor Tyndall seems to me open
to the same charge in a less degree. He remarks that
we can probably never bring natural phenomena
completely under mathematical laws, because the
approach of our sciences towards completenessmay
be asymptotic, so that,however far we may go, there
may stillremain some facts not subjectto scientific
explanation. He thus likens the supply of novel
phenomena to a convergent series,the earlier and
largerterms of which have been successfully disposed
of,so that comparatively minor groups of phenomena
alone remain for future investigators to occupy
themselves upon.''
''
On the contrary, as it appears to me, the supply
of new and unexplainedfacts is divergentin extent,
so that the more we have explainedthe more there is
to explain. The further we advance in any general-
isation,
the more numerous and intricate are the
exceptionalcases still
demanding further treat- ment.
.
We
. .may rely upon it that immense,
and to us inconceivable, advances will be made by
the human intellect, in the absence of any catastrophe
to the species on the globe. Any one
. . .
of
Mr Darwin's books, admirable though they all are,
consists but in the settingforth of a multitude of
indeterminate problems. Why orchids should have
been formed so differently from other plants,why
anything,indeed, should be as it is,rather than in
some of the other infinitely numerous possible modes
of existence,he can never show. The origin of
everythingthat exists is wrapped up in the past
historyof the universe. At some one or more points
in past time there must have been arbitraryde- terminatio
which led to the productionof things
as they are."
Professor Huxley, in his reply to Mr Gladstone,
referred to mathematics as a perfectscience ; but
Jevons says : The problemswhich are solved in our
**
114 SPIRIT AND MATTER

mathematical books consist of a small selection of

those which happen from peculiarconditions to be
solvable. If our mathematical sciences are to cope
with the problems which await solution,
we must be
prepared to effect an unlimited number of successive
integrations
; yet at present, and almost beyond
doubt for ever,
the probabilitythat an integration
taken haphazard will come within our
powers is
exceedingly small. After two centuries of continuous
labour, the most gifted men have succeeded in
calculating the mutual effects of three bodies each
upon the other,under the simplehypothesisof the
law of gravity. Concerning these calculations we
must further remember that they are purely ap-
proximate,
and that the methods would not apply
where four or more bodies are acting, and all produce
considerable effects upon each other. There is
reason to believe that each constituent chemical
of a

atom goes through an orbit in the millionth part of

the twinklingof an eye. In each revolution it is
successively or simultaneously under the influence of
many other constituents, or possiblycomes into
collision with them. It is no exaggeration to say that
mathematicians have the least notion of the way in
which they could successfully attack so difficult a
problem of forces and motions. As Herschel has
remarked, each of these particles is for ever solving
differential equations,which, if written out in full,
might belt the earth.*'
*' ''
And yet these are the simple means by which
'' "
materialists seek to do away with the complex
problems of psychology; such men have no more
true comprehension of the real physicalfacts behind
physical phenomena than has the most ignorantand
superstitious Congo African,and their faith is of the
same order of superstition, and equallyblinds them
to facts just as potent, or more potent, than those
they assume. It is of these incompatibleresidua
that Sir John Herschel has said that almost all great
astronomical discoveries have been disclosed from
''
the examination of residual differences. Nothing,''
**

says Jevons, is more requisite for the progress of

 PHYSICAL SCIENCE 115

science than the careful reading and investigation of

such discrepancies. In no part of physical science

can we be free from exceptions and outstanding facts

of which our present knowledge can give us no

account. It is such anomalies that we must

among
look for the clues to new realms of facts worthy of

discovery. They are hke the floating waifs which

led Columbus to suspect the existence of the New

World."

And yet those men of science who disdain to

examine these waifs, which obviously point to the

existence of some new world of science, and who

heap with ridicule and opprobrium those who would

interrogate these waifs and learn their hidden cance,

signifi-
are not genuine men of science, but simply
advocates who would pervert an argument and conceal

or ignore a fact, or a multitude of facts, which chanced

to fall in the way of their pet theories, or their

publicly expressed earlier opinions. As St John

''
Stock Suppose I do find the unseen to be the
says :

haunt of ungrammatical ghosts, what then ? It has

its high life, I as well as its low. This world

suppose,
itself is vulgar or practical according to the light
in which we look at it. Do not reject well-attested

narratives merely because they sound grotesque.

He is not a faithful lover of truth who would not
go
'
through dirt to meet her. One vision of her
snowy
'*
feet is worth the labour of a life.'
 CHAPTER XV

THE DARK DAYS OF PSYCHOLOGY

Professors Balfour Stewart and P. G. Tait, in

their well-known **
Unseen Universe/' in the very
preface, soundwarning a against the false assump-
tions
''
of pseudo-science. As professors of Natural
*'
Philosophy/' they say, we have one sad remark to
make. The great majority of our critics have hibited
ex-

absolute ignorance as to the proper use of the

term Force, which has had one and only one definite
'
scientific sense since the publication of the Princi-
'
pia ; as such men are usually among the exceptionally
well-educated, ignorance of this important question
must be almost universal."

Ignorance of the proper sense of this term is

almost universal among scientific specialists; to find
it properly used we must to the broadest men of
go
science alone. In the hands of narrower writers it

seems to have an individual identity so as to be

measured bloc, like ice, or potatoes.
en As Sir John
Herschel, Sir William Crookes, Romanes, Lord

Kelvin, Sir Oliver Lodge, and all the greater physicists

point out, we know nothing of abstract force at all,

any more than we know of abstract light or heat, and

the only force we can have personal knowledge of is
that of volition, and as our own volition acts, on a

minute scale, much in accordance with the actions,

on a grand scale, which we see all around us, we can

easily account for such force in the same way, but,

''
as Sir John Herschel says, constituted as we are,"
we cannot do so otherwise.
Force manifestation, and we only recognise
is but a

it by seeing something change place, or else infer that

something can change place ; either it has been made
ii6
ii8 SPIRIT AND MATTER

to be alarmed. It was too much to be borne, that

a Genius summoned up in the very name of order
should turn out to be insatiate as this !
a demon so

Must the whole visible universe,indeed, arrive at

such a state as to be totally unfit for the habitation
of livingbeings? The individual they were content
to sacrifice,
perhaps even the race, but they would
spare the universe.
Undoubtedly, if it be possible
to pity men who could so easilydispense with
Christianity and immortality,they had at length
got themselves into a deplorabledilemma. For the
principlethey had invoked was absolutelywithout
pity,and in the most heartless manner continued
to point towards sacrifice of the visible universe.
This,they were told,was only a huge fire, and must
ultimatelyburn itself out. Nothing would be left
but the ashes ^the dead and worthless body of the
"

present system.'*
This was, as regards Christianity, and religion
generally, the attitude of many of the leadingmen of
physical science in those dark days about 1878,only
four years before the great societyfor Psychical
Research flungits broad banner of lightacross the
blackness of that night nay, not the blackness of
"

the night,but the blackness of the mephitic clouds

which hid and blinded men to the brilliant sky, lit
with countless stars and constellations, and woven
across by the shuttles of planets,and satellites, and
comets, and meteoric streams, and peopled, who
knows ? ^bywhat myriad hosts of life and intellect.
"

But the clouds were indeed dark in those dark

days and nights. Embryology was all unborn ; the
psychological studies of microscopiclife had scarce
begun, and were all misunderstood ; anthropology
was a thing of shreds and patches; comparative
religion w as degraded by supercilious smiles,or the
paraphernalia of an exploded devil ; and men's eyes
were fixed,if fixed at all,on the physicalbasis of life,
on the jargon of a tumbling chemistry,and intel- lectual
''
men were immersed in merely physical
research."
Had ajiew Dean Swift emerged then, we should
 THE DARK DAYS OF PSYCHOLOGY 119
not have to amuse ourselves with his embattled
and
philosophers, those men of science who foughtto
the death over whether cakes and vegetablesshould
be cut in trianglesor in squares, and whose most
earnest pursuitswere to extract the sunshine out of
cucumbers so as to use it over again.
Theinfection was, apparently,almost universal.
**
Mallock,in his satirical New Republic,'* makes one
'^
of his most brilliant characters say, Christianity
took three hundred years to supplant polytheism";
atheism has taken thirty to supplantChristianity/'
Romanes himself,in explainingthe error under
which he lay when he wrote his earlier work ('*The
Candid Examination of Theism''), which was published
"
in 1878,says, Moreover,in those days,I took it for
granted that Christianity was played out, and never
considered it at all as having any rational bearingon
the questionof Theism. And though this was less
doubt-
inexcusable,I stillthink that the rational stand-
ing
of Christianity has materiallyimproved since
then. For then it seemed that Christianity was
destined to succumb as a rational system before the

double assault of Darwin from without and the

negativeschool of criticism from within. Not only
the book of organic nature, but likewise its own
sacred documents, seemed to be declaring againstit.
But now all this has been materially changed. We
have all more or less grown to see that Darwinism is
like Copernicanism,etc.,in this respect ; while the
outcome of the great textual battle is,impartially
considered,a signal
victoryfor Christianity."
We all know how Colonel R. G. IngersoUwas, in
his lectures,glad to point out in prophecy, that
within few years every Christian church was
a to be
converted into a music hall.
Since those days the cautious critic has noted a
great change what would be a miraculous change
"

were we not able to see clearlynow that the elements

of disintegration, which began by disintegrating
spiritualism, bore within themselves their own integration
dis-
and by virtue of the very agency which
was invoked to destroyreligion, but which, instead,
120 SPIRIT AND MATTER

destroyedits own old materialism for ever, and left it

as a monument of that
dangerous partialknowledge
from which men are now turningin horror.
Even in those dark days,the clearest-headed fully
perceived the utter inadequacyof the weapons forged
to attack the spiritualism of the unseen universe.
Mallock, in his same ''New Republic,'* makes
another of his characters,who frequentlylectured
*'
before the Royal Institution, say, Pray do not think
that I complain of this generation because it studies
Nature. I complain of it because it does not study
''
her. Yes," he went on, you can analyse her in
your test-tubes, you can spy her out in your micro-scopes
; but can you see her with
your own eyes,
or receive her into your own souls ? You can tellus
what she makes her wonders of,and how she makes
them, and how long she takes you about it. But
cannot tell us these wonders
what are like when they
'
are made. When God said, Let there be light, and
'
lightwas, and God saw that it was good was he
thinking,as he saw this,of the exact velocityit
travelled at, and of the exact laws it travelled by,
which you wise men are at such infinite painsto dis-
cover
; or was he thinkingof something else,which
"

you take no painsto discover at all ?

*'
Say Stewart and Tait : It is only within the last
thirtyor fortyyears that there has graduallydawned
upon the minds of scientificmen the conviction that
there is something besides matter or stuff in the
physicaluniverse,something which has at least as
much claim as recognition
matter toas an objective
reality, though of course far less directly obvious to
our senses as such, and therefore much later in being
detected. So long as men spoke of light,heat,
electricity, etc., as imponderables, they merely
avoided or put aside the difficulty.
'*
When they attemptedto rank them as matter "

heat, for instance,as caloric ^theyat once fell into "

errors, from which a closer scrutinyof experimental

results would assuredlyhave saved them. The idea
of substance, or stuff as necessary to objective existence

very naturallyarises from ordinaryobservations on

 THE DARK DAYS OF PSYCHOLOGY 121

matter ; and as there could be little doubt of the

physical reality of heat,light, etc.,these matters were
in earlytimes at once set down as matter.
"
This endeavour to assigna substantive existence
to every phenomenon is,of course, perfectly natural ;
but on that account very likely to be wrong/*
While naturalists turned their attention only to
the physical,they necessarily ignored everything
non-physical, and this led to a stillgreater error, for
they were compelledto bridgethe breaks physically,
for they had nothingelse to work with, and since this
*'
was impossible,they were obliged to force the
balance-sheet,'' by alteringfiguresin every column,
and making false entries, or cancelling those entries
incompatible with their methods and purposes,
their methods beingthe onlyones known to them, and
their purposes merely to present a sum-total which
would satisfy the uninstructed observer.
''
Professor Shaler,of Harvard, in his tion
Interpreta-
of Nature," says: "That which the naturalist
sees of animal mind he sees at an immense tage.
disadvan-
In the first place,he cannot perceivethe mind
of any being directly ; he can only infer the mental
constitution of the creature from its acts, and these
acts are performed by parts that are, in most cases,
utterlyunlike those with which he is accustomed to
see emotion expressed. It is only when
the creatures
belong to the upper part of the animal kingdom and
are akin to himself in the nature of their emotions
and their modes of
expression,that he can attain
much in
certainty his observations. Moreover, the
whole trainingof the naturalist,
as it is now pursued,
tends to blind him to the observation of such obscure
thingsas the mental phenomena of nature. Every
pursuit, if it becomes devoted to its ends, creates an

idol of prejudice in the mind. With the naturalist it

is the idol of clearness, what we might perhaps better
call the idol of evident fact,that is created. customed
Ac-
to see all with which he deals,the invisible
is sure to be with him the non-existent. Every now
and then some experiencetells him that the invisible
element in the operationof this life is really greater
122 SPIRIT AND MATTER

than the visible element. He sees, for instance,the

little transparent sphere of the egg, apparently no
more specialised than a small bit of calf's-foot jelly,
yet he knows that it is charged with the historyand
the profitof a hundred million years of life, which it
will hand down to the beingswhich are to come from
it. Despitethese lessons, which he may have at any
hour of his work, the naturalist must bow before the
matter-of-fact, and shun this indefinite field. His life
must be in the open day of plainly seen things. There
are few naturalists, and those mainly of the class that
did not enter on the study of zoologyby the anatomic
path, who have shown any skill in the study of the
mental parts of animals."
With equipment like this,it is obvious that
an

these physicalspecialists are of all scientific men

those least qualified to discuss the spiritual.Yet
they are usually the firstand loudest to deny a future
life, and why ? Simply because they know nothing
about the facts which pertainto the solution. They
are agnostic, ignoramus, and by virtue of not seeing
'^
the soul in the dissected carcass, they Rush in where
angelsfear to tread.*'
Professor Shaler clearly sets forth their utter in-capacity
to even discuss such questions, as men of
science.
*' ''
The attitude of scientific men,** he says, wards
to-
the doctrine of the personalimmortalityof the
soul appears to be a matter of much interest to the
public. Every teacher in this field of inquiryfinds
himself subjectto frequent interrogations as to the
measure of his belief in a future life,and he readily
discovers that his answers have an undue weightwith
those who hear them. There is hardly sufiicient
reason for this desire to ascertain the views of
naturalists concerninga problem which clearlylies
beyond their province. The rules of their calling
limit them to considerations which have a placein the
phenomenal world they go far from the
alone. If
facts with which they have to deal,they transgress
the limits of their clearlydefined field,and enter
wildernesses which they have no rightto tread. If
 THE DARK DAYS OF PSYCHOLOGY
123

they journeys there, they must make them

essay
without the semblance of authority.''
"
Again, The sturdy, self-satisfied denials of mortality
im-

the confident statements of men who said

;

there was no
soul because they could not find it with

the knife or weigh it in the balance, were put forth in

the days when naturalists had but begun their quiries

in-

in the phenomenal world.'*

'*
There is abundant room," this eminent
says man

'*
of science, for spiritual truths in the universe. In

fact, our
modern physical science is ever tending
from the crude conceptions of matter held by
away
the ancients. It seems now as
if the end of the long
dispute between the materialists and the spiritualists
soon come to an end through the growing viction
con-
may
of physicists that all matter is but a mode of

action of that the physical universe is not

energy ;

a congeries of atoms, which are inert except when

stirred by the dynamic that all phenomena

powers ;

whatever are but manifestations of In

powers.

other words, the students of nature are now nearer to

those who have trusted to the divining senses than

ever
before."
 CHAPTER XVI

THE CREDULITY OF INCREDULITY

The earnest student, the true student, of science must

not, cannot, be deterred from her pursuit by any
grotesque narratives or absurd behefs ; it is here
pre-eminently that the field of genuine science lies.
Tap nature where you will, it is inscrutable until
investigated, and the inscrutable means either the
superstitious or the unconquered. If the former, you
will never know it until you have conquered it, and
until conquered the whole field is inscrutable. A
prioriis the only fatal attitude ; that kills at the first
footfall. It is not only among the vulgar that the
pursuer meets with the grotesque ; if he would avoid

that, he must steer clear of science.

** "
Scientific method,*' says Jevons, must begin
and end with the laws of thought, but it does not
follow that it will save us from
encountering in-
explicab
and at least apparently contradictory
results. The nature of continuous quantity leads us
into extreme difficulties. Scientific method leads us

to the inevitable
conception of an infinite series of
successive orders of infinitelysmall quantities. If so,
there is nothing impossible in the existence of a myriad
universes within the compass of a needle's point, each
with its stellar systems, and its suns and planets, in
number and variety unlimited. Science does nothing
to reduce the number of strange things that we may
believe. When fairlypursued it makes absurd drafts

upon our powers of comprehension and belief."

Under such circumstances, it seems quite as easy,
at least, to accept, as a phenomenon of rational

psychology, even the ghost of Benjamin Franklin

as a mere survival from his conceded earthly existence

124
126 SPIRIT AND MATTER

asks is to be examined and ; the

investigated quences
conse-

are abundantly able to take care of them-

selves.
Nor especially
is the investigation difficult,
as

a scientifictask.
Says Arago (Annual Bureau of Longitudes):
'*
Doubt is a proof of modesty, and it has rarely
injured the progress of the sciences. One would
not be able to say as much of incredulity. That
one who, outside pure mathematics, pronounced the
word impossible^ is wanting in prudence. Reserve
is above all a necessity when he is dealingwith the
animal organisation.'*
''
Arid Abercrombie, in his Intellectual Powers,'*
'*

says : An unlimited scepticism is the part of a con-

tracted

mind, which reasons upon imperfectdata, or

makes its own knowledge and extent of observation
the standard and test of probability.In receiving
upon testimony statements which are rejected by the
vulgaras totally incredible, a man of cultivated mind
is influenced by the recollection that many thingsat
one time appeared to him marvellous which he now
knows to be true, and he thence concludes that there

may in nature
still be phenomena and many
many
with which
principles entirelyunacquainted.
he is
In other words, he has learned from experience not to
make his own knowledge his test of probability."
In fact,this denial without practical knowledge,
by so-called scientific is,
specialists look at it as we

may, simply vulgar; as vulgar as for those of the

*'
new-rich "
(whom we ridicule), when raised from
indigenceand ignorancesuddenlyinto an atmosphere
far above their training and capacity, to criticisethe

art,literature or acquirementsof their new ings.

surround-
You be astonished
would to know how much
vulgarityof this sort exists among so-called scientific
who
specialists go outside their own narrow feeding-
grounds. Occasionally they get to quarrelling
among
themselves, and then everybody can see and laugh
at the maverick strain.
The dogmatism theologyfinds a full counter-
of part
and co-worker in her newer sister,dogmatic
science. The scientific pursuitis a noble one to
 THE CREDULITY OF INCREDULITY 127

espouse, the work is grand beyond comparison,the

fruits are alreadypriceless and vast, but specialties
always narrow the field of vision of the specialist,
and the time for dogmatism has not yet come, and
will not come for ages, if at all.
'*
As Professor Jevons well says : It might be
readilyshown that in whatever direction we extend
our investigations and successfully harmonise a few

facts,the result is only to raise up a host of other

unexplainedfacts.'*
How fatal to the of scientificadvancement
cause

then, and how in stillgreater difficulties,

prolific must
be the effort to conceal those unpalatable facts which
do not fall into the category of some half-wrought-out
hypothesis,or to ignore those which alone would
make the work worth doing,or save it from merited
condemnation. Alfred Russel Wallace appliesthis
criticism with stunning force againstDr Carpenter,
referring
to the close of the fourth chapter of his
''
elaborate work on Mental in which
Physiology,''
he nevertheless boldly attempts to settle the whole
i questionof the realityof such facts.
I *'
It is,we suppose, owing to his limited space
that,in a work of over 700 pages, none of the well-
attested facts his views could
opposed to be brought
to the notice of his readers.''
The names and facts thus
suppressedor ignored
by Dr Carpenterwent to the very heart of Carpenter's
book. No honest man could have passed them over

without mention, or an attempt even to controvert

them but Dr Carpenterwas
"
unable to controvert
these already publishedfacts,for they were versally
uni-
*'
known, and so saved his face,"as the
Chinese say, at the expense of his scientific standing,
I and his lastingfame. The men of science referred to
by Mr Wallace, who were entirelyignored by Dr
Carpenter,were such as Dr Gregory, Professor of
I Chemistryof the Universityof Edinburgh,Dr Ragsky,
Professor of Chemistry,Vienna, Dr Huss, Professor
of Clinical Medicine, Stockholm,and Physicianto the
King, Dr Endlicher,Professor of Botany, Vienna,
Dr Diesing,Curator in the Imperial Academy of
128 SPIRIT AND MATTER

Natural History,at Vienna, Pauthot, Dean of the

Collegeof Medicine at Lyons, Gamier, Physicianof
the Medical Collegeof Montpelier,Sir Walter G.
Trevillian,Dr Mayo, Professor of Anatomy and
Physiology,King's College,and of Comparative
Anatomy in the Royal College of Surgeons, Dr
Haddock, Dr Edwin Lee, Mr H. G. Atkinson, F.G.S.,
Dr Clark,and a number of others.
''
When Dr Carpenter wrote his Mental
Physiology,*' the series of wonderful books by Dr
Alfred T. Schofield, M.R.C.S.,commencing with his
''
Force of Mind," had not appeared,crowded with
citations, as they are on every page from the highest
''
authorities (see his Unconscious Mind "), nearly
every one of which would have negativedall the seven
hundred pages of Dr Carpenter's ''Mental Physiology;
but that was Carpenter's good fortune,while living,
and very bad fortune,indeed,when dead.
But it is not only the credulityof scientific
specialists, and their consequent unfairness,for
credulity is ever unfair,that has retarded the growth
of scientificinvestigation and acceptance of spiritual-
ism,
but the credulity a nd ignorance many of those
of
who are most devoted to spiritualism. Those who
deny everything without investigationare well
matched by those who accept everythingwithout
investigation.Mrs Ross Church (who aided Sir
William Crookes in his studies of the Katie King
''
Phenomena), says these latter are generallypeople
of low intellect, credulous dispositions, and weak
nerves." How shall we designatethe former class ?
Shall we call them of high intellect, incredulous positions,
dis-
and strong nerves ? We must guard our
terminologyif we should attempt to do this,because
incredulity itself is simply credulity.There is no
real difference between them. To believe a thingis
to beheve that thing,and to disbeHeve it is to beheve
an oppositething,and, unless after a fair trial and
evidence as complete as possible, one credulityis
just as credulous,weak-nerved, and of as low in- tellect
as the other credulity.How many of you
have thought of this dominating truth ? Yet it is
 THE CREDULITY OF INCREDULITY 129

fullyrecognised by science,as Arago long since

until the evidence
stated : the only correct attitude,
'*
has been fullyheard, is doubt, or suspensionof
judgment,'' as it is called ; from that attitude
evidence,as it is presentedand accumulates,will,or
ought to, incline the mind to one side or the other.
But the classes I have referred to, the pro and con of
credulity, as I may call them, are altogetherand
equally outside the pale of science. Not that there
is not much in the public phenomena and per-
formances
of which
spiritualism is fraudulent and
tricky,nor that the allegedresults are not often the
productionsof those who have made a study of de- ceiving
the people, and trifling with the holiest
emotions of sorrowing and bereaved friends. But
this is true of all things which come under the
cognisanceof mankind, and yet, notwithstanding,
the truth can be obtained and recognisedeven in a
world so deceptiveat firstsightas this world is. On
this abilityto sift out truth is based the whole system
of our jurisprudence, whereby, out of an untruthful
witness even, by care and skill, the unquestionable
truth be wrung.
can It is on the accumulation and
co-ordination of evidence,independentevidence,that
much dependence is justlyplaced it is incredible "

that a vast multitude of

witnesses, of all ages and all
countries,should always be able to lie in precisely
the same
way about an innumerable multitude of
apparently accidental facts. The same principles
which we in
apply universally acquiringand ing
extend-
all
knowledge, are equallyapplicablehere, and
the case is greatlysimplified by the fact that the
experiments can be repeated,and similar results
obtained,by means of careful and continued attempts
among any few selected friends ; between man and
wife,and through human subjects with which studied
deceptionwould be abominable,and incredible ; and
in a host of ways by which fraud and deceptioncan
be as excluded
rigorously as in any other branch of
life and knowledge nay "

more, for here we meet

with conditions which prove the facts by the silent
sense of conviction or evidence within each one of us.
 SPIRIT AND MATTER
130

For men
of science to ignore all this to walk in
"

darkness, when only their own

self -held cloaks hold
with-

the light, to work offal into food, when the whole

universe teems with living sustenance, to juggle with

words and phrases, to conceal, distort or prevaricate

in order to support a preconceived hypothesis, or

establish an a priori proposition "

that is what

spiritualists object to. And the dark, disgraceful

day is rapidly passing The momentum has
away.

become so great that the danger is of too swift

now,

an advancement, and spiritualists are

themselves

asking each other in anxiety "

what shall be done

when the great rush for cover comes ? "

^when those

who have so long stood in the forefront of the opposing

forces have and with that
come over en masse easy
^

with which we are

all so
well acquainted,
assurance,

out that they have always believed in its truth,

cry
and always said and that their great and only
so,

cause of complaint has been that the spiritualists

themselves never went half far enough ?
 CHAPTER XVII

PHYSICAL SCIENCE CANNOT EXPLAIN ITS OWN BASES

In considering the achievements of science,

or of the
physicalsciences in general,I do not wish it to be
understood that nothing has been gained in these
various sciences. On the contrary, the gainshave
been enormous, and have immeasurably advanced
life and civilisation. But these are not the sort of
achievements of which the scientific specialists
feel
especially proud, or of which they boast, for these
achievements are those of systematicweighing and
measuring " that is to say, simplydescriptiveand do "

not advance our actual knowledge of nature to any

considerable extent, while they very much facilitate
the business and system of life.
Wherein science has failed in achievement is in
dealingwith the very foundations on which it stands.
In every case it starts with a simple superstitious
assumption,which it never seeks to account for,and
having made this assumption of what it does not
understand, and which attracts little attention
because it is about something familiar even to the
unscientific, then science takes the physicalmani- festations
of the moment, presentingthemselves at
hand, and simplygivesus their weightsand measure-
ments.

This of course does not touch the primary ceptions,

con-

or their
assumptions,and in consequence
(as in the overturning consequent on the newer
discoveries relatingto matter, radium, electricity, the
X-rays,etc.,etc.),when these residua,or foundations
rather,have been actuallyinvestigated, the whole
system of weights and measurements requiresre-vision,

and the older assumptions have to be aban-

131
132 SPIRIT AND MATTER

doned, and a new start made, with other assumed

bases, and other interpretations
to account for the
phenomena of the now assumed new bases.
For example, granting gravitation, science has
given us its scale of attractions, and the tables or
rules of its various physicalphenomena, but it does
not explainwhat gravitation is or can be.
Granting solid bodies,it gives us their weights,
colours,hardness,chemical properties, combinations,
etc.,etc.,but it does not explainwhat a solid body is

or can be.
and
So of liquids, so of gases ; so of all the hard,
basic facts of nature ; its achievements here are
infinitesimal, but in givingwhat are called the laws
of this,or the laws of that, science is profuse, but the
different behaviourof these various substances do not
constitute laws,any more than the behaviour of cats
and dogs, and not half as much as pertainsto an
Arctic animal which, brown in summer, turns white
in winter,or how a peacock'stail builds up a series of
perfecteyes out of hundreds of separate feathers,
each with its thousands of separate branches. It
is descriptive science pure and simplewhich it really
deals with, like descriptive botany, or descriptive
''
mineralogy,or what was formerly called natural
history,'* while we think it is dealing with real things.
Now this natural historywill illustrate what I
mean. Until recently the study of the forms and
structures, the varieties, the species,the genera, and
the habits and customs of animals,constituted what
''
went under the name of natural history.''It was
extremely useful to man ; it planned, and mapped
out, and illustrated, as geographers do, the political
divisions as it were, the habits and customs, skin,
jointsand hair and the like,of animal life ; but it
'' "
had nothingto do with the how and why of these
various creatures.
the
When, finally, of animal life
ultimate
questions
came to be searched out (almostaccidentally),then
biology quite unexpectedly popped into existence,
and as soon as biologybecame a livingthing,it led
the searchers back and back, and suddenly and
134 SPIRIT AND MATTER

greedy and superstitious public(superstitious when

they want to beheve what they would like to believe),
I will quote the followingfrom Professor Graham's
*' '' ''
Creed of Science : Science is often,in our days,
"

characterised as atheistic. What is the justice of the

charge ? It depends on what we mean by science
and what by atheism. If we mean by science, as in
strictness we should, a knowledge of the laws of
phenomena, their regularsequences and conjunctions,
the discoveryof which is the business of science, then
science is not and cannot be atheistic, no matter what
'
meaning we attach to atheistic* But if we mean
by science,what those who bringforward the charge
mostly mean namely, some
" of the philosophies fessedly
pro-
based on the conclusions of science, as
materialism,positivism, evolution then it depends "

on what these several philosophies conclude respecting

the First Principle and Ultimate Realityof things. . . .

A state of chaoi", whatever may have been the crude

beliefs of men, there never was in the cosmos nor ever

can be.existence of God

The as the eternal support
of the universe,as the inmost nerve and essence of
thought,is our guarantee to the contrary. And this
belief is confirmed by science.*'
Says Dr Warschauer, of Oxford and Jena, in his
** **
^'
Anti-Nunquam : No method of investigation
known to the laboratory has ever laid bare the process
" ^which yet we shall be scarcely called upon to deny "

by which nerve stimuli are transmitted into sensations

or ideas ; of scientific observation
no amount and
experimentfurnishes us with more than the know-
ledge
that certain phenomena are regularly followed
by other phenomena, or can prove that phenomenon
A causes phenomenon B : yet we all believe in the
realityof causation. Moreover, all science really
rests on certain prior assumptions transcending
scientific proof. It is clear that Huxley's agnostic
formula breaks down justbecause it proves too much,
and would make us agnostics
on many thingsbesides
religion."
Science does not even know how a blade of grass
grows, or how it can grow.
 UNEXPLAINED BASES 135
''
Says Tyndall : The passage from the physics of
the brain to the corresponding facts of consciousness
is unthinkable. Were we able even to see and feel the

very molecules of the brain, and follow all their

motions, all their groupings, all their electric charges
dis-
if such there be, and intimately acquainted
with the corresponding states of thought and feeling,
we should be as far as ever from the solution of the
''
problem,'' and
adds, The chasm between the two
classes of phenomena would still remain intellectually
impassable."
And even Biichner, rank materialist as he was,
was compelled to concede that **we do not know how

spirit can be defined anything else than

as as thing
some-

immaterial in itself,
excluding matter or opposed
to it."
Says Masson, in his lectures before the British
''
Royal Association : The fact may be dwelt on that,
where the means of
comparison among animals exists,
notions of the phenomenal world possessed by one
do not seem to contradict those possessed by another.
The dog's world seems to corroborate man's, and
man's world the dog's, and
feelinggeneralised on this
not only our sport but all our action proceeds. Is not
this as if there were a basis of independent reality
to which every sentiency helped itself according to its
appetite, but in such manner that all can co-operate ?
''
There are, within our view, countless gradations
of sentiency, all busily existing from those in- "

finitesimally minute creatures which the microscope

reveals to us swarming in and among the mere stices
inter-
of things till invisibility is reached, up to our-
selves,

the chief possessors of the earth, and the last

and highest of the visible scale. . . .
Must this position
sup-
"
be closed abruptly when we come to Man ?
 CHAPTER XVIII

THE AMERICAN AND ALL OTHER PATENT SYSTEMS,

FOUNDED ON SUPERNORMAL PHENOMENA

I HAVE spoken of the various sorts of evidence in

favour spiritualism religious, psychological,
of "

philosophical,anthropological and scientific.

But there is a mass of direct evidence in favour
of the supernormal to which I have not yet referred
which is perfectly overwhelming and indisputable,
which is accepted by every court in Christendom,
and is well known to lawyers, but of which science is
in utter ignorance, while yet science itself acts as the
humble handmaiden and assistant of these enormous

results of direct spiritualrevelation. Not only that :

the well-being of all our people is so closely interwoven
with these revelations that one half their tangible
property and more than half their prosperity is
directly due and dependent on these supernormal re- velations.

The question is often asked, if supernormal

revelations are true, why do the spirits not tell us
something of use, instead of chattering like old women
or curates ? Here we have use enough, and results
enough to convince the most sceptical and satisfy
the most avaricious. Yet it is purely secular, so that
superstition cannot discredit it on the one hand, nor
sectarian religioncondemn it on the other, while, as I
have said, science is running all its workshops to
scatter its beneficent results broadcast over the world.
Many years ago the cash market value of these
revelations in the United States alone was estimated
at more than ten thousand million dollars, with an

annual increase of more than twenty per centum.

If these revelations and their practical results
throughout the world were utterly eliminated, the
136
 THE AMERICAN PATENT SYSTEMS 137
world would instantlyfall back more than two
thousand years into barbarism.
Yet I do not know that this great body of irrefut-
able
evidence has ever been handled as a whole, and

flung en masse against the intrenchments of

materialism,empiricism or devitalised Christianity.
This is what I propose, in a few words, to do.
Science does not deal with invention ; invention
is finding ^not
a "
a findingout, but a finding; and a
new discoveryis not a reasoningout, or something
picked up from books or people; but something
newly uncovered from the mass of utterlyunknown
things.
To illustrate the cash market value of asingle
one of these supernormal revelations,
the right to
practically use which for a few years inured to the
recipient and his legalrepresentatives alone,I quote
the following from a magazine article on the invention
and use of the telephone: "

''
The decision that made this condition possible
was a most tragicthing. It meant hundreds of
millions of dollars to a small group of men in Boston
and ruin to hundreds who had embarked in the tele-
phone
business under one or the other of the inter-
fering
patents. But, of far graver
importance even
than this,it meant the stifling
and monopoly of a
publicutilitythat,under free competition,would have
saved thousands of millions to the people of the
'^
United States.
The case was simply this
of persons : a number
claimed to have each been the first, true and sole
inventor of the telephone,a thing never known to
anyone on and its mechanical
earth before, reduction
to practice.The contestants in the interference had
the publicrecords of the allegedfirst discoveryor
invention before them, and then claimed to have
previously made the same invention. Only one could
have done so first, and the whole case before the
United States Supreme Court was not to determine
who would secure advantage, or who sustain loss,
but simply to determine who was the first to find out
and put into useful form with diligence, the first
138 SPIRIT AND MATTER

working telephonethe world had ever known, used,or

conceived, and then give publicnotice,and secure
protection in the legalmanner provided.
Science deals with reason, induction, deduction,
observation, experience, necessity,classification,
weightsand measurements, modifications and applica- tions,
and the like, but never with invention. Science
deals with interpretation, not with creation. tion,
Inven-
on the part of a man of science,spells condemna-
tion
of science and its methods. Nature wants to be
courted,not superseded; she wants a follower,
not a

critic ; she wants a lover,not a dreamer. That is

what physicalnature asks for from
physicalscience.
And what is asked
for from materialistic philosophy
is the interpretation of the phenomena of nature, not
its supersession.But this new evidence deals not at
all with what physical science deals with, and nothing
at all with what philosophy deals with, but comes
*'
down like a flash,
strikes like a bolt from the blue,'*
suddenly, completely, overwhelmingly, and stantaneou
in-
" and almost at once new money
makers are spinning and speeding all through the
land, new kinds of industryspringup like enchant-
ments,
and man's horizon broadens and broadens,
''
with newsky-lightand star-light, and the world
and all that therein is,the round world and they that
dwell therein,"are transformed for ever and ever.
Suppose thatwere true,would not that be evidence ?
It is true and it is evidence ; and science and religion
have only missed it because it comes unheeded, like
Tennyson's flower growing in the crannies of the old
stone wall :

**
I hold you here, root and all,in my hand.
Little flower but if I could understand
"

j
What you are, root and all,and all in all, J
I should know what God and man is." ,/
I will not puzzle you any longer; you would
never guess it ; it is the patent system, and the army
of patents,eighthundred thousand strong in this one
country alone. I refer to the American,
specifically
but it is equally true of the patent systems of all
other nations.
 THE AMERICAN PATENT SYSTEMS 139
Not eighthundred thousand patents
one of these
could have been granted, not one of them could
have been sustained if it depended on any one of
those factors with which the physical sciences or
materialistic philosophy deal.
A new device which is the result of reason, or duction,
in-
deduction,or observation,or experience,
or

or necessity or weightsand
or classification, measures,
or modifications applications, or interpretations
and
of known nature, is not a patentableinvention at all,
cannot be patented,and, if inadvertently patented,
the patent will be thrown out by the first United
States Court it is brought up to appear before.
This is not a new thingto courts and lawyers,nor
to inventors, to their sorrow, when make-believes,but
it will sound so strange to you perhaps that it will
appear ridiculous. You will say : Why, look around
everywhere ; everything pretty nearly has been
patented or mixed up with patents, and they all
embody well-known scientific principles and applica-
tions.
So they do, but they didn't beforehand.
You know of the old farmer urginghis grown-up but
bashful son to hunt up a suitable girl and get married.
*'
To his tearful protest the old man said : Why,
what's the matter with you ? Didn't I have to get
" **
married too Yes," came ? hopelessresponse, the
''
but you married mother, and you want me to go
out and marry a strange gal."

I have said that patentableinventions came down

''
like a bolt from the blue," and that reason had
nothing to do with them. You will find that reason
is not merely indifferefnt, but is an actual obstacle
to invention,which is intuitional,instantaneous,ex-traneous

and revelational.
"
briefly
I shall quote from Merwin's PatentabiHty
of Inventions,"a standard authorityon patent law,
one of the highest in fact,and from some of the
United States Circuit and Supreme Court decisions
bearing on these points. I quote first the follow-
ing
:"
''
An idea is not an if it be
invention, in the nature
of an inference."
 140 SPIRIT AND MATTER
"
Whatever is logical
deduction from something
else is not invention/'
''
Reasoning is not invention."
"
An inference drawn from the known ships
relation-
of thingsis not invention/*
''
Inference is not invention/'
''
Analogous use is not invention/*
from special
'MJtility knowledge of the properties
of bodies is not invention/*
''
Size or extension is not invention/*
''
Improvement in degreeis not invention/*
''
Change of arrangement is not invention/*
"
Knowledge of physicalfacts invention/* is not
*'
Union of different devices is not invention/*
''
The summary is as follows It appears, then,
:
"

that the process of mind called for by the statute

is not that of ordinaryreasoning,
or inference,
or
deduction. Whenever the mind advances from the
known to the unknown by a transition natural to the
uninstructed
ordinary, intellect,there is no invention.
then,is a criterion
Inference, of what is not invention/*
It is clear then that invention is not scientific;
it is the oppositeof science,for the above definition
of what is not invention is precisely
the correct finition
de-
of what science is.
*'
I will now quote from what Merwin calls The
**
test of what is invention/* The phrasesused by the
**
he
courts,** says, to describe invention are very few ;
' * '
Inventive genius; the geniusof an inventor ; the
* ' *
inventive faculty ; invention as from
distinguished
' *
mechanical or technical skill ; invention as tinguished
dis-
' *
from construction ; ingenuity as trasted
con-

with judgment of a skilled workman/*

the
*' *'
Invention,** he says, is thus difficult to define,
because the idea expressedby it is a simpleand ele- mentary
one. Invention,as we have alreadyhinted,
is that process of mind which creates. It is the giving
birth to a new idea capableof physical embodiment.'*
^.. Consider these momentous words, create givebirth. ,

''Invention means," says the distinguished author,

*'
a lawyer writingfor lawyers and courts, something
that no other word means, it is the creating of some-
142 SPIRIT AND MATTER

reason has been thrust aside, and its conclusions

ignored,nay, denied.'*
''
then is in the nature of a guess.
Invention The
mind leapsacross a logical chasm. Instead of ing
work-
out a conclusion, it imaginesit.'*
"
The nature of this creative guess," this
"
"
imaging of what is to be but never has been,which
will operateas a mechanism when it is afterwards put
into material form for the
time, cannot come first
from the personal,physicalman himself,with his
sum-total of reason, observation and experience. He
finds the integration complete,and put into his hands
ready for use. What worked out these integrations,
and gave to him only the beneficent and complete
conclusion ? There is an integratingpower far
beyond our highest conceptions.Says Sir John
Herschel,of these integrations, even among physical
''
atoms, Their movements, their interchanges, their
' ' ' '
hates and loves,' their attractions and repulsions,'
'
their correlations,' and what not, are all determined
on the very instant. There is no hesitation,no
blundering, no trial and error. A problem of dynamics
which would drive Lagrange mad is solved instanter.
A differential equation which, algebraically written
out, would belt the earth, is integratedin an eye-
twinkle."
The flash of these inventions comes sometimes
in a dream ; so the method of
making shot came, in a

dream, like a flash,

to an ignorantwoman, the wife of
a shot-moulder,and revolutionised the art of shot-

making in an instant. I know other cases of valuable

inventions revealed in sleep. This is why great
inventions are usuallymade those totally
by outside
the realm to which their discoveries pertain. Those
in the rut work by reason and fail ; to those outside,
in due time, for the wants of man, there comes the
flash of inspiration,and the world rolls over on to a
new facet,and a new lightis kindled for all time.
Says the United States Circuit Court, in the case
''
of Blandy vs, Griflith, Invention bringsinto activity
a different faculty. Their domains are distinct."
Says the United States Supreme Court in the
 THE AMERICAN PATENT SYSTEMS 143
"
Reckendorfer case, Mechanical skill is one thing,
invention is a different thing. The distinction tween
be-
mechanical skill and its convenience and
advantages and inventive is recognised in
genius,, all
cases."
'* ''
Invention," says Merwin, is characterised by
an absence of conscious effort and by instanteousness
of operation."
''
Imagination, here, seizes upon the true, though
extra logical, conclusion."
''
An intuition is a single,indecomposable, mental
act ; an inference is a mental passage from one thing
to another."
*'
Invention is an act of vision. There is no vention
in-
until performed this act is ; but no effort
can ensure its performance, and the performance is
instantaneous, and unaccompanied by conscious
effort."
'^
thought or experiments which precede an
The
invention are only gropings in the dark. However
accumulated, they prove nothing, and they do not
necessarilylead to anything. The inventive thought
does not depend upon them, and cannot be verified
by them. Reasoning is unravelling, and invention
weaving. Reasoning is an analytic,invention a

synthetic process. In one case a truth is drawn out ;

in the other it is constructed,'*
If this synthesis, if this con-
weaving, if this
struction,

if this materialised vision,was never before

in or of mankind, then it was from something outside
mankind, and, as it was the result of a mental vision,
it was psychical ; if,on the contrary, this weaving,
this synthesis,this construction, was ever before in or
of mankind, then it was not an invention, not a new
discovery,not patentable,and not sustainable even if
patented. It must answer to the test of the Ancient
Mariner :

"We were the first that ever burst, into that silent sea.''
 ^ L^U'h7^--'M/
"4 o*^ #^ J^r-
"W^ ^A?M^

CHAPTER XIX

THE WORKSHOP IN THE SUBCONSCIOUS DEPARTMENT

OF THE MIND

Badly stated,
as I have,for brevity,
been compelled
to do, I ask you each
must individually to think this
of invention out.
question You will find its springs
inevitablyin the sources of genius,inspiration,
mediumship,clairvoyance and spiritualism. I speak
from experience. It comes up from the depthsof the
subconsciousness, of course, but if the subconscious-
ness
is an originalcreator it is so by its direct connec-
tion
with the greatpsychismof the universe. As it is
so rare a phenomenon, it is more likely that it comes,
as Swedenborg, and Von Hartmann, and other great
psychologists, agree, from influx or revelation.
If it was among
new men, it could not have come
telepathic allyfrom any other living man, or else we
will have to try to imaginewhere that one got it, but
it might have come from
telepathically, surviving
spirits of those once living, and who, inspired with the
inventive facultyon earth,have, in their greater
freedom after death,worked the problem out, and
put, for the welfare of their unforgotten race, the
conclusion, like a flash,by a vision,in the still
watches of the night,into those receptive hands.
It would be worthy work for those gone before.
And, somehow, this seems more reasonable to me,
though I may be wrong, than that the Great Spirit
of the Universe should be concocting, for some
iiindividual man here, the vision of a sewing-machine

or a phonograph. Universal instincts, whether

among insects or higher, or lower, animal or vegetable
lifeI can readily conceive of as directly implantedby
creative wisdom to make the gift and transmission of
144
\
 SUBCONSCIOUS MIND 145
lifecapableand useful,and so of faith (not opinion,
with which, says Romanes, it has often been un- warrantably

confused), honour, truth, justice,

courage, manhood and womanhood, fidelity, and all
the fundamentals of higher life and mind, or the
divinelyendowed faculties which Locke took as his
stock in hand, with which to start mankind along,or
revealed religion,or even the cyclic changesof nations,
the rise of great leaders,the great intermittent and
fluctuating periodsof art from one peopleto another ;
but I feel sure that, among those great individual
souls which have gone beyond, and are stilladvancing,
still breathinga higher and nobler life, there must
stillbe that love of our own livingones left behind
which would enlist their efforts, as a lovingmother,

I feel certain,would still seek, as a guardian spirit,

to watch over and guide her loved ones' feet,from
that realm where, says the glorious hymn of Newman :

"
We shall see those smile
angel-faces
Which we have loved long since,and lost awhile."

I will quote beautiful lines from " The Ring,'*

some

by Tennyson, which will illustrate my meaning,

wherein the father says to his young daughter :
**
Fear not you !
You have thering she guarded ; that poor Unk
With earth is
broken, and has left her free,
Except that,stilldrawn downward for an hour.
Her spirithovering by the church, where she
Was married too, may linger, tillshe sees
Her maiden coming Uke a queen, who leaves
Some colder province in the North to gain
Her capital city,where the loyal bells
Clash welcome linger,tillher own, the babe
"

She lean'd to from her spiritualsphere,

Her lovely maiden princess,crowned with flowers,
Has enter 'd on the largerwoman- world
Of wives and mothers.'*

When alittlechild,
brought up in a mining region,
I have often gone down the deep shafts,and once
went down my father's well,nearly a hundred feet
deep "

^theyroofed it over afterwards " and looking

up, in the broad noonday, I saw the heavens
146 SPIRIT AND MATTER

sprinkledwith the
heavenly stars ; but when I
reached the surface
again, the busy, humming,
material,workaday world, they were gone. Were
they gone ? One poor, deceptivesense told me that
they were gone. But my soul knew better,child as I
was. Had they emitted sound, I could have heard
them still; had they been near enough, I could have
touched them still5 had they had odour or taste I
could have smelled or tasted them still. The stars
were not gone ; it was the medium
through which I
saw them ; it was the cuttingoff of all those baffling
earth-rays,it was the extinguishing of all those dis-
cordant
vibrations, which enabled me, and me alone,
or such placed Uke me, to see them in all their truth
and beauty.
And so it is with spiritual manifestations ; they
are always with us, they are ever around us, they are
always manifestingthemselves, and communicating
''
with us, but we not, because we
see them see as

through a glassdarkly,'*
we feel them not, because we

are bewildered by the rough, coarse and common-

place.

But let only the God-given Ught come, the

direct light,
let the scattered earth-light
be cut off,
and lo !
"
We shall see our Pilot face to face."

The source of these ideas from the beyond is not

far to seek,if there is an intellectual beyond ; but if
there is none such, then we must relegateall these
magnificentinventions,and all that they have done
for civilisation,
for the race, and for mankind, to that
limbo of blind superstition, where credulous imbeciles
grovelin the dirt before
"
A rag, and a bone, and a hank of hair.' "

Bowen,in his work on Modern Philosophy,

Professor
''
in considering Von Hartmann's great system, The
Philosophyof the Unconscious,*' says : ''In respect
to the processes of reminiscence, reasoning,induction,
discovery, composition, invention and several others,
Hartmann justlyobserves that everythingdepends
on the rightthought occurringat the rightmoment.
 SUBCONSCIOUS MIND 147
And this
happy suggestionis invariablythe work of
the Unconscious. Vainly do we rack our brains with
persistent conscious effort and research to find the
word for the riddle or the solution of the problem ; it
will not come at our bidding. And then suddenly,
perhaps after a considerable interval of time, during
which we had discharged the subjectfromour thought,
and perhapswhen we were idlymusing on some other
theme, justwhat we wanted flashes upon us as by
inspiration.The man of science is quiteas dependent
as the poet,or the wit,on these gleams of light coming
from the unconscious. Archimedes steppingout of a
bath,or Newton idlygazingwhen an apple falls from
the tree,suddenlycalls out Eureka ! and the problem
which may have perplexed him half a lifetime is
spontaneouslysolved. What remains is easy enough ,
and may be slowlyelaborated in conscious thought ;
it is only,through the reasoningprocess, to bringthe
new truths into harmony with those previously known,
and therebyto determine their classificationand place
in a system. The premisesbeinggivenin immediate
intuition, through inspiration from the Unconscious,
the right inference from them follows,as it were,
mechanically, being drawn as easilyand correctly by
a simpleton as by a man of genius; in fact,says
Hartmann, it follows necessarily, justas a ball pro-
pelled
by two forces must move on the diagonal which
is the resultant of their combined directions.'*
Tliere is no person who is not familiar with this
''

process in his own experience. I have it juston the

tipof my tongue ; wait a minute, it will come to me.*'
*' "
It will come to me ? Who is the me ? What
is it that comes, and whence comes it ?
ProfessorLadd, whom Schofield characterises as
'*
a vigoroussupporterof the old and narrow school,'*
'' ''

says, in his Philosophyof Mind" : A thinker on

any problem finds the truth shot up from the hidden
depths below ; it appears presentedfor seizure to
consciousness as the giftof the Unconscious. In
similar fashion are the happy hits of inventors,the
rare achievements of art, bestowed upon the mind
rather than consciouslywrought out by it. Nor can
148 SPIRIT AND MATTER

one fail to notice as significant,

the connection of all
such experienceswith the condition and nature of
* '
tact/ of instinct/ If the credit is to be given,
as it were, to the unconscious activities of our own

mind for these results in consciousness which follow

states of unconsciousness,such credit must be ex-
tended

quiteindefinitely. For the credit of much of

our most brilliant and impressiveacts in consciousness
undoubtedly belong not to consciousness ; it belongs
to somewhat or to some One of whose doings we, as
conscious egos, immediatelyconscious/'
are not
Professor Montgomery, writingin Mind, vol. vii.,
''

says, We are constantlyaware that feelings emerge

unsolicited by any previous mental state, directly
from the dark womb of unconsciousness. Indeed, all
our most vivid feelings are thus mysticallyderived.
Suddenly a new irrelevant, unwilled, unlooked-for
presence intrudes itself into consciousness. Some
inscrutable power causes it to rise and enter the
mental presence as a sensorial constituent.**
Wundt, authorityon mental phenomena
whose
*'
few will question,says in his Physiological Psy-
chology
* * ' '
: The traditional opinionthat consciousness
is the entire field of the internal life cannot be ac-
cepted.
In consciousness psychic acts are very
distinct from one another and observation . . .

necessarily conducts to unityin psychology. But the

agent of this unity is outside of consciousness, which
knows only the result of the work done in the un-
known

laboratory beneath it. Suddenly a new

thought springs into being. Ultimate analysisof
psychicprocesses shows that the unconscious is the
theatre of the most important mental phenomena.
The conscious is always conditional upon the un-
conscious."

One must note that Ladd speak of

and Wundt
'* ''
shot up from the hidden depths below,** or work
done in the unknown laboratorybeneath it.** These
metaphors must be kept in mind as metaphors only,
'*
for while they are necessary in picturing states,*'
*'
they bear no relation at all to facts.** There is no
above or beneath in consciousness or unconsciousness ;
 150 SPIRIT AND MATTER

to me thatreallya passiveinstrument in the

I was

hands of a person not myself.'*

These are familiar experiences ; who does not
recall the saying,when a difficultor, at the time, an

insoluble questionof business or the like suddenly

*' "
confronts us I will sleepon it ? What, sleepon
"

it ? if sleep but the periodof brain quiescence

" is or of

fantastic worthless dreams

or ; as Dr Hammond says,
''
*'
When the brain is quiescent there is no mind ?
Ah, no ; quoting from Professor Barker's
" " ''
Foundation of Habit in Man : Mind may be pre-
dicated
of all animal in
life, one sense or another ;
and we may also favour the view of Agassizand others
that a spiritual element is the organisingcause in
every embryo cell,determiningits development."
And not only mind in animal but mind,
life, and
mostlythe subconscious mind, in vegetablelifeas well.
Dr Ward, the paleo-botanist of the United States
GeologicalSurvey, Curator of the Botanical Depart- ment,
United States National Museum, in his
''
'
Memorial Address on Charles Darwin,says : Darwin
''^^jlooked upon plantsas living things. He did not study
their forms so much as their actions. He interrogated
J ^s.
'''''' ''^^'''''
them to learn what they were doing. The central
a^H/'i*
truth, towards which his botanical investigations
constantlytended, was that of the universal activity
of the vegetablekingdom that all plantsmove "and
act. He has, so to speak, animated the vegetable
world. He has shown that whichever kingdom of
organicnature we contemplate,to live is to move.
plantsacquireand displaythis power
*
He says that
only when it is of some advantage to them,' but asks,
whether animals displaythis power except when it is
of some advantage to them ; and answers, certainly
not. Every leaf,every tendril,every rootlet,pos- sesses
the power of spontaneous movement, and
under nearly all circumstances actuallyexercises
that power."
speaker,in his Memorial Address, continues :
The
*'
Darwin has actuallysolved the great problem of
phytologyso long supposedto be incapableof solution
" viz.Why does the root grow downward and the stem
 SUBCONSCIOUS MIND 151

upward ? Briefly and roughly stated, the answer to

the question is that, as the bursting seed pushes out

its two germinal points, these circumrotate from the

first,and thus explore their surroundings for the means

of benefiting the plant. To employ Darwin's own

' '
words, they perceive the advantage that would
result from the penetration of the soil on the one hand,
and from the ascent into the free air and sunlight on
the other, and through the pre-Darwinian law of the
*
physiological division of
labour,' the one becomes

geotropic and the other heliotropic/'

So the epiblast in the growing foetus reaches
around and unites along its raphe or seam, and grows
together only here, to enclose the body and its tents,
con-

'' "
perceiving beforehand the union which
it must effect. And so the little pole-bean stalk, as /^ _x

it sends its first tendrils out, reaches around for a J /Mi^j

support. Take a stick, and set it in the ground a "
j y.
'*^^''^'
couple of inches away, and see the little plant bend
over and reach out to twine its tendrils around it.

Just before it reaches the stick, pull it up and stick

it in the ground on the opposite side, and it is really
pathetic to see the movements before the plant finds

out whither to bend again ; repeat this at different

points, and you can make the little plant travel at will,
'' "
without reaching its heart's desire at all. The

plant will as clearly manifest its bewilderment and

disappointment as if it were a dog. I have often,

when a boy, done this to a poor little bean-stalk, until
I was actually ashamed of myself. But my mother

loved plants and flowers : she was one of those who

''
could sing to the flowers," and they heard her.
 CHAPTER XX

MEMORY THE FINAL BATTLEGROUND OF EMPIRICISM

I long foreseen that the field of memory

HAVE is to be
the final battleground between psychology and any
materialistic or empirical theory of the universe and "

that psychology will be the winner.

For ages memory was looked upon as a series of
*' '' ''
impressions/' or physical records kept in cells
or pigeon-holes, as it were, in the brain. But with
our advances in science these views soon became
untenable ; but the old
terminology still persists,and
we are deluded thereby precisely as we are deluded

by any false definition of terms, or by the want of

accurate definition.
Lord Bacon, among eidolons,gave this
his eidolon
of form a prominent place, because, having become
familiar with a term, the term soon becomes, if we are

not careful, a description,and will be used to explain

the unknown, while it itself is equally unknown. It
is though we should
as speak of x and y as equal, or

unequal, and thereby come to look upon x and y,

which are quite unknown quantities, as real quantities
themselves, instead of
symbols of the unknown, and
which cannot explain anything, because they are
themselves the very things to be explained. It is so
with the terms Hypnotism, Telepathy, Unconscious-
ness
or Subconsciousness, and a multitude of other
terms and phrases. This is why every term must
be defined precisely,before using it. A bright young
visitor in a company of members of the Society for

Psychical Research one evening said that all we were

discussing could be easily explained by hypnotism.
I asked him what he meant by hypnotism, and he
answered that if we were going to splithairs in that
152
 MEMORY THE BATTLEGROUND 153

way, there was no use in prolongingthe discussion.

That was pro. Now, this one is con. At a Hke
meeting,a visitor presenteda case or a problem of
occult character,and explainedit,as he thought,
by reference to Carpenter'stheory of unconscious
cerebration, but was not at all himself satisfied with
the explanation, althoughhe knew that it could be
explainedphysically.I suggestedthat perhaps it
might be explainedby Abracadabra. He said he had
thought of that too, but believed that it did not fully
account for it either. Seeing signs of amazement
somewhere, he suddenlyasked me what I understood
''

by Abracadabra. Blest if I know,''I replied. And

that, surely,ended the discussion, for he became
angry, to my regret.
And so of memory ; it is like the sunrise,which
men have seen dailyfor thousands of years, and not
a soul knew that it was an earth-sink, or turn-over,
instead of a sunrise ; however, we stillcall it sunrise,
"

although we know better now. So of memory, we

call it impression^
an and while psychologists know
that it is not an impressionat all, but a memory, we

stillcall it an impression.
It is easy to clear up the fallacy
; every living soul
has the material at hand ; but nobody bothers about
it,any more than he does about sunrise. Yet the
whole past, present and future of the race, and of
spiritualism, psychology,religion and humanity are
involved in the disputeddefinition of memory, and,
until that is settled,
we must bother about it. When
we fullyunderstand this memory, it will be like
Tennyson's flower in the crannied wall.
**
I hold you here, root and all,in my hand,
Little flower, but if I could understand
"

What you are, root and all,and all in all.

Then / should know what God and man is."

Here is a little hypotheticaldialoguewhich I

wrote out some years ago, such as are occurringevery
day. If anyone can explainit,or even indicate any
conceivable means by which it can be explained,
on a

physicalor empirical it will

basis, be more than any-
154 SPIRIT AND MATTER

one as yet has been able to do.

And yet it is so
homely and simpleas to be almost
ridiculous.
A young student at college
meets his classmate,
'*
after a says to him :
vacation,and Jim, I got your
letter about old Aleck being drowned in your cistern ;
why, you haven't any cistern.*'
'*

you fell into when

Yes, the you visited us
one
several years ago, when we were boys. It was the
day that mother went away to Uncle John's funeral.
''
What day was that ?
''
It was the 3rd of July ; we were thinkingof
making a kite,in the barn ; but it wasn't a cistern ;
it was spring."
a
''
Yes, but the springdried up, and father verted
con-

it into a cistern."
''
I didn't know that,but the old is
spring-house
indeliblyphotographed on my memory. I can see it
now with the beehive alongsideit."
''
No, that was a wasp'snest ; one of them stung
you on the neck. The beehives were up behind the
barn."
'*
Then IThat was
neverthe day you
saw them.
shot at Johnson'sold duck and missed it."
*'
Yes, and when we acted it out afterwards for old
Aleck,I can see the old fellow's face graduallydraw
up into puckers,and his grinbroaden and broaden,
till he finally tumbled off the stump amid peals of
laughter."
''
By Jove ! how the lines of his face jumped back
and reversed themselves I really thought he should
"

take to crying. He blamed it on the old duck, too,

but your mother blamed it on me."
''
No, on me, and I guess a licking
was due me for
shootingat that duck ; but I never got it,and only
last year mother told me that she had begged me off."
^'
She winked at me when you weren't looking.
I'llbet the old
placeappears quitechanged with^the
gone."
spring-house
''
No, the spring-houseis still there, but it's a
wood-house now. Do you know where the wood-
"
house used to stand ?
**
Do I ? I've got that axe-scar on my ankle yet."
 MEMORY THE BATTLEGROUND 155
Now this
triflinglittledialogueis simply to show
that memory, comparativelyspeaking,from physical
impressionson the brain-cells or elsewhere,is im- possible.
*' '*
The theoryof associated ideas is called
in to connect these utterly discrepant factors together,
but we must beware here of the underlyingfallacy
which any theory of such association of ideas with a
physical substratum implies. If the whole set,so to
speak, are associated,they are associated as a set,
and since they are awakened or touched upon from
so many directions, and touched upon at so many
points(or must be if they are to be thrown into
associated contact, as it were, by a thousand diverse
accidents), the association must be extended and
extended, until all ideas whatever are connected up
with all other ideas whatever, and the fabric falls,
by its own weight,as well as by the demonstration
of fact, which each of us can make, and must make
every moment of our lives. We would have to
become, in fact,like the old German farmer in Penn-
sylvania,
who, charged with being land-greedy,
*'
replied
: Why, I land-greedy,
am all I want
not is
choost the land what jineson to mine.'' Or it would
be like that hypothesisof continuouslycopulated
telepathywhich makes all the knowledge of anyone
whether past or present,the common knowledge of
all,and everyone, of course, practicallyomniscient.
But there is one qualityor character of memory
which is studiouslyconcealed in presenting the
physiological conceptionof memory, and itis a curious
example of Lord Bacon's eidolon ofform.
I cannot better express this than by citingPro-fessor
Francis Bowen, of Harvard University, in his
''
discussion of Von Hartmann's splendid Philosophy
of the Unconscious." Had Von Hartmann not feared
to follow where his own
system inevitablyled,he would
have leftbehind him the greatestwork on the subject
ever givenby mortal man, if we may except a single
one, eighty-oneshort chapterswhich make up
the
the Tao-Teh-King of Lao-Tsze, the ancient Chinese
philosopher,
who wrote twenty-five hundred years ago,
especially
when collated with the commentaries of his
 156 SPIRIT AND MATTER

almost equallyillustriousfollower, Kwang Tsze,who

wrote a century and a half later.
' '
SaysProfessor Bowen in his Modern Philosophy : ' *

"
We need to have an adequate conceptionof the
magnitude and importanceof the work which memory
has to do, before we can rightly understand how far its
'
operationdepends upon that power not ourselves
*

'
which Hartmann calls the unconscious/ An obvious
illustration will make this point clear. Many edu-
cated
persons, in this country as well as in England,
know enough of at least four languages,Latin,French,
German or Italian,
and English,
to be able to read any
common book in either of them with about equal
facility.The whole number
English words, not of
includingpurelytechnical terms mere derivatives, or

is at least fortythousand ; and that portionof the

vocabulary of either of the other three languages,
which is at command of a well-educated foreigner,
is probably half as large. Among the treasures of
memory in such a mind, therefore, must be reckoned
at least one hundred thousand mere words, all of
dc^ (fj^
which, with some trifling for
exceptions onomatopoeia,
Q are symbols as arbitrary a s the signs in algebra.What
a countless multitude of individual facts and familiar
^/i)imi^i,
* truths in science and ordinarylife are either wrapped
up in these words, or exist side by side with them in
any well-informed mind ! Certainlysuch a mind is
far more richlystocked with words and ideas than
the British Museum is with books.
admirably That
managed institution, suffering from the ment
embarrass-
of riches,maintains a full staff of well-trained

librarians ; and one of them, after rummaging the

catalogueand the shelves for perhapsten minutes,will
triumphantlyproduce any volume that may be called
for. But the single invisible librarian, who awaits our
orders in the crowded chambers of memory, is far more
speedy and skilful in his service. A student reads a
page of French or German in a minute, and for each
of the two or three hundred groups of hieroglyphs
* '

printed it, on the unconscious furnishes

instantly us

whatever we call for,either its meaning, or its ety-

mology,
or its Englishequivalent, or its grammatical
158 SPIRIT AND MATTER

and co-ordinated. And in writing a letter all the

sentences are and the juxtapositions of all the

new,
ideas are also new, else it would not be a letter, but

a copy ;
and in the latter case the statement still
remains true of the original from which the copy was

made.

As a matter of fact, the whole of memory belongs

to that psychical world which Sir John Herschel

described, in which will is complemented with motive,

power
with design, and thought with reason, which is

not a chaos, and in which the movements of the atoms

and molecules are so co-ordinated and controlled,

*'
that a problem of dynamics which would drive

Lagrange mad is solved instanter, while the movement

goes on, and in which a differential equation which,

algebraically written out, would belt the earth, is

integrated in an eye-twinkle.'*
They are alHed with that instinct which Kant
''
declared to be The voice of God," and Von Hart-
'' "
mann the Action of the Unconscious but not
;
that pseudo-scientific notion of instinct, as a memory
survival from earlier forms, before, and from
ages
progenitors which were less informed, instead of
better informed, and which could not possibly have

known the very thing which their successors are

assumed to have learned from them "

and how ? By
physical memory " impressions, transmitted through
countless generations, and a series of pickers, equally
countless, travelling along, pari-passu, all to teach

ants, for example, the best place to bite a man, before

men were created.

 CHAPTER XXI

THE SOLE ALTERNATIVES : DEITY AND SPIRITUALISM,

OR ELSE ZERO AND NIHILISM

Spiritualism merely encountering

is to-day the old
odium theologicum, and opprobrium scientice, which
all new lightand all new science has ever encountered,
''
and is religiously damned with the same bell,book ^
and candle*' as have been encountered by all great
scientificreforms ; its validity is found to be estab-
lished
as soon as the clues have been run out, but that
did not matter so long as science refused to run them
out, and its greatest,its only enemy is that same old
a priori,which has held back the knowledgeof man,
"

by the refusal of what Professor James calls the will

to believe," or what is the same thing,the will to
examine.
So, the value of science to man is in nowise
diminished by a full and fair knowledge of what it
reallyhas done, and how, and on what basis it
has
done it,but it is immeasurably degradedby its denial
of,or refusal to investigate, of the very
the actuality
bases on which it is established ; and stillworse, of
its agnostic denial of any human abilityto search out
and determine these fundamentals of life and mind.
Wherever science put down an a priori, you may
mark well that,starting with and taking cognisance
of the mere apparent phenomena of physics,it has
worked merely with weights and measurements, and
so doing,and so doing alone,as soon as it strikes the
unknown it creeps behind the Moloch of superstition,
into whose red-hot gridiron bars it has alreadyhelped
to flingthe haplessfew who have been looking, and
proving,and thinking, instead of merely talking,and
talking, and talking.
159
i6o SPIRIT AND MATTER

What matters it,as dealingwith psychology,how

long it takes a sensation from a pin-prickto travel
from the finger to the brain or spinalcord and back
again? The question obviously is, how does it
travel at all, and what is it that travels ?
So of the distance at which two calliper pointson
the skin will feel as one prick,or as two ? or what
appears when an ignorantsavage tries to count above
five,or all the formal, descriptive and mechanical
results in the physicsof life and mind ? That is not
psychologyat all. What is life, what is mind, what
is perception, what is reason, what is memory, what
is remorse, what is art,or love,or genius, or intellect,

or whatever makes man differ from and superior to

the brutes, and the brutes superiorto crude matter ?

Why do living thingsgrow internally, and why, when,

like Niagara,whole cataracts of the intimate cules
mole-
of worn-out cells and detritus are pouring off
continuously, and new ones growing in everywhere,
so that a man is constantlydying and being made
over, does the living organism remain the same ? Is
not a man with a legand arm off stillthe same man ?
Is he not the same man as he was
years ago ? What
is it that works while we and
sleep, never wearies,
while our consciousness has to sleepone-third of the
time in order to work the other two-thirds ? What is
that pickerwhich travels through a series of invisible
dictionaries of forty thousand words each, and stantly
in-
put on your tongue the word your ness
conscious-
need
feels the of, in any known language, but
does not itself know how to express ? And when the
pickermisses fire, as it were, what is it that pops
the
''
missingword up, as Ladd says, shot up from
the
*'
hidden depth below (indeed,an intelligence with
knowledge and power has shot it up),while you, per- chance,
are talking about crops, when the word was

wanted when you were talkingan hour ago about

Egyptian hieroglyphs ? What man is sufficient unto
himself ? Yet what is sufficient at all on this earth,
exceptingman ? and he only,as Ladd says, when ''the
giftofconsciousness"hasbeenbestowedupon the mind.
Far be i'tfrom any of us to decry the practical re-
 THE SOLE ALTERNATIVES i6i

suits of science,but equallyfar be it from us to decry

the higherwork of those who are able to deal with the
foundations of science,and especially far be it from
them decry what they have never
to honestly tried.
'* "
A fop was asked, Do you speak French ? and
'*
replied, Ah, I have nevah twied, but I daresay I
could if I should twy/'
The a priori professor of science, however, would
''
have answered : There is no such thingas French ; I
never speak anything but English,and am proud of
it ; I have settled the French question long ago, on
a priori grounds ; they merely jabber."
''
Says Masson, in his lectures on Recent British
Philosophy,'* before the British Royal Institution :
*'
Shall philosophypretend to regulatethe human
spirit, and not know what is passingwithin it to "

superviseand direct man's thinking,and not know

"
what they are ? We can all admire, indeed, and
understand,the feeling of Wordsworth when he says :

'*
Great God ! I'd rather be
A Pagan in
suckled
a creed outworn,
So might I,standing on this pleasant lea,
Have glimpsesthat would make me less forlorn."

These great questionsof mind are not insoluble ;

granted that mind exists and who denies it ? and " "

that it is operatingall around and within us, it ought

to be the simplestof all the problems of science to
solve. And it would have been solved long ago, and
by the scientific method, had science even tried to
solve it. Only to-day is it awakening to the task.
It is shameful to say it,but until recentlyit was dealt
with as a mere metaphysicalsuperstition, or a sort

of brain secretion, volatile and fugitive.Yet mind

itself was the instrument they used to deny the
existence of mind. As Emerson says, in his poem of
"
Brahma,"
"
They reckon illwho leave me out,
When Me they fly,/ am the wings."

And it must be solved or we die, for such was

the penalty of the riddle propounded of old by

i62 SPIRIT AND MATTER

the Egyptian sphinx. Masson clearlygivesus the

solution ; indeed the solution is everywhere except
''
where it was looked for. Says Masson : I cannot
conceive anything as resultingfrom the experience
of a zero unless I start with a
; and mind de-
finable human
as zero, I must allow a very definite amount of
priorbequest in that human mind wherewith to grasp
and mould experience. Or, if empiricism[materialism]
pushes the disputefurther back, . . .
still,
at every
'

stage the assertion recurs, We are not yet at zero ;

something is antecedent, something structural and
predetermined, even here.' Or, if at last,somewhere
behind the Nebula, we do reach Zero,or Nothingness,
what becomes of Deity ? Is Deity at the back of the
originalzero or Nothingness,out of which all else
has been evolved or convolved empirically ? Then
either Zero would have remained such, and, as from
nothing nothingcan come, there would have been no
evolution whatever, or else the true originof the
whole evolution is not Zero but Deity.'*
It is a solemn that the alternative is either
truth
Deity or nihiUsm ; there is no other. And with a
Deity once granted,even so sceptical a leader as John

Stuart Mill concedes that revelation is but ordinary

and normal, and to be expected.
And this spiritualrevelation is the basis of all
religion,and it is the basis of all spiritualism as

well.
And this belief is not merely a belief, such as the
childhood beliefthat the moon is made of green cheese,
but like the other old belief that the moon influenced
the tides, and which science,after Newton had
pointedthe way, long after indeed,took into its body
and made a part of its structure. It is a valid im-
mutable
belief,this knowledge of the psychismof the
universe,and its revelations to the kindred psychism
of man, both by direct evidence in all ages and places
all mankind and by the even still more
"

among "

controlhngfact that there is no alternative ; it is

either God or zero, and from zero, however multipUed,
nothingcan come. There is no evolution from zero "

try it on a slate; if one boy has no apple and

 THE SOLE ALTERNATIVES 163
another boy has twice as many, he will stillhave no

apple.
But if we come from God, littleas
psychism is,
our

if you multiplyit by an infinite psychicaluniverse,

you will have an infinite God, and, by knowing our-

selves

at the best,we know Him also ; and can trust,

honour and serve Him and ourselves,and carry out
His eternal purposes.
Says Professor Joseph Le Conte, the eminent
geologist and biologist,of the University of California,
'' "
in his Religionand Science :
''
That man is an immortal spiritis the doctrine of
Scripture: it is more ; it is the basis of all religion
and morals and
virtue,and, indeed,all that ennobles
our humanity. It is also a datum, a clear revelation
of consciousness Belief in this is immediate, intuitive
.

and universal in all minds unplagued by metaphysical

subtleties. We may learn to disbelieve, we naturally
believe. Belief of this rests on precisely
the same

basis as our belief in external Nature. The one is a

direct revelation of sense, the other a direct revelation

of consciousness. Both, therefore, are equally
certain,far more certain than anything can be made
by proof. These are the foundations,the starting
pointsof reasoning, not the goalof reasoning. They
are the bases,the underlyingcondition of philosophy,
not the subject matter of philosophy.
'' ''
There are, then,*' he says, two bases of
philosophy,in fact,two poles of existence matter "

and spirit matter.

the thingperceived,
. . spirit the
thing perceiving ^matter the revelation,spiritthe
"

interpreters-matter the passive,spiritthe active

principle. (Without a belief in spirit, therefore, not
only can there be no religion, no but there can
virtue,
be no philosophyor science ; there is no longerany
significance in man or in Nature.'')

This is the very reverse of superstition; it is the

acme of hard-headed common-sense and tion
demonstra-
and certain
knowledge.
Andsee where this psychicalindividualism of
man, at its best,leads us ; see what it does for man's
brotherhood and God's fatherhood, and how it takes
i64 SPIRIT AND MATTER

hold, with hooks of steel, of each one

of as soon as
us,

we see
it presented in the divine psychism of an honest

human life, and how the spiritual power

of an
eternal

Fatherhood rises in its revelation above the human

creeds and the entanglement of sectarian theology.

tl

^"'-,
 tHAPTER XXII^^^^^ J^Jt^^y^^
SUMMARY OF PARTS I. AND II.

In the first part of this work, I endeavoured to show

that religion was as old and as universal as mankind ;
and that the principles of religion were the outcome
of spiritual revelation to man, or else of a primarily
implantedrevelation in man ; but that,at all events,
no tribe,no race, no people,in any age, was devoid
of religion ; and I cited the most recent investigations,
which have fullyoverthrown the earlier and more
dogmatic teachings of a less developed pology.
anthro-

I also showed that the basis of every religion is

spiritualistic,
that their principles
are those of modern
and ancient spiritualisms, and that the phenomena
relied upon to establish them among men were tical
iden-
with all the various phenomena of spiritualism.
Even the religionof Islam, perhaps the most
rationalisticof allreligions,
starts with a transcendent
miracle as its basis ; that the Koran was not only a
direct revelation from God, but was an autograph
from God, so that,to alter or vary a line or letteris to
betrayGod Himself by forgery.
I have endeavoured to that all historic
show
religions embody the same principles, and are based
on the same truths,and that the prehistoric or un-

historicreligions are identical with these.

I have also shown that in moral and spiritual
loftiness the earlier religions are not deficient, but
that many of them are far higher,by any spiritual
or divine test that we can apply,than many later
ones, and that in all primitivereligions the great
overgod is found intact, and the recognitions of
direct communication with man are full and explicit,
167
 i68 SPIRIT AND MATTER

not only between man and God, but between man

and individual spirits.

I have shown you what all advanced
gists
anthropolo-
now
agree upon, Spencerian
that the notion that
religion came from ghosts and dreams is absolutely
futile, and falls not only by its own weight,when we
undermine the false data and hypotheseson which it
was built,but totallyfails to interpret the religions
of earlier peoples, or to account for the phenomena of
later religions.
Dealing with the Christian religion, and with the
Hebrew faith and practiceof which it was the out-
come,
I have shown that, prior to the Reformation
in the sixteenth century, the whole Christian religion,

*y*"- without dissent or cavil anywhere, was spiritualisti

/ to the backbone ; but that this spiritualism, which
was preciselylike the spiritualism of to-day, had
become the property of the church, and was demned
con-

when practisedoutside its sacerdotal ary,

bound-
while yet its existence everywherewas not denied,
either by church or people.
I showed also that Luther's revolt was only
possibleby deprivingthe old church of its spiritual
dominance, for that church believed and taught
spiritualism, that both it and its religion
were from
Christ and His apostles,and not from the New ment,
Testa-
but the contrary, the church preceded
that,on
and produced the New Testament, and was the direct
and body of Christ,and nothingelse.
spiritual
To give the Protestant revolt any locus at all,it
was necessary to repudiatethe whole spiritualism
of the time, as claimed by the old church, and to fall
back on the New Testament as a purely historic
document, or a collection of historic documents.
This involved two fallacies, but this position was

absolutely
necessary if the revolt,ascarried out, was
to succeed at all. I am not denying the beneficence
of, or necessityfor,the revolt ; I am merely citing
facts.
The first fallacywas that while the spiritualism
of their own day, in the old church, was denied by
the reformers,the same had
spirituahsm nevertheless
 SUMMARY OF PARTS I. AND II. 169
giventhe Protestants their own Bible ; for the vaHdity
of the canon, which cast out three-fourths of the
originally accepted documents, was only possible by
a great spiritualistic intervention, and this occurred
but a few centuries before the Protestant revolt,and
long after the time of Christ. And hence, the old
church asked,why not such intervention afterwards ?
The second fallacy lay in the fact that the author-
ship
of most of the writingsof the New Testament
was anonymous. Hence, in the absence of direct,
continuing, spiritualistic
revelation, valid to make or

unmake the whole record,there was no evidence of

any authentic revelation or Bible at all.
These errors forced Protestantism into a position
which has done enormous harm. It was the tion
concep-
of a great anonymous God, who had made a

mutilated and written record, and left it for man,

and then abdicated until the far-off time of the
promisedjudgment. As a consequence, materialistic
science, then about beingborn,uniting in this crusade,
which suited itsneeds exactly, flungnatural causation,
instead of divine control, into the government of the
universe,and atheism made common cause with this
practically suspended theism.
''
Says Romanes : The conflict of science and re- ligion

has always arisen from one common ground of

agreement, or fundamental postulateof both parties
" without which indeed it would plainlyhave been
impossiblethat any conflict could have arisen,
inasmuch as there would then have been no field for
battle. . . . Quite apart from modern science all the
difficultiesonthe side of intellect (orreason)which
belief has ever
religious encountered in the past,or can
ever encounterin the future, whether in the individual
or the race, arise, and arise exclusively, from the self-
same
ground of this highlydubious hypothesis. The
hypothesis or fundamental postulatein questionis,
// there he a personalGod, He is not immediatelycon-
cerned with natural causation''
Here we see the momentous consequence of
divorcing religionfrom a continuously acting,
spiritualistic
volition and and so divorcing
revelation,
170 SPIRIT AND MATTER

it from its basic truths and phenomena, in

fact,from
*'
all that is commonly called spiritualism."
In the second part of this paper I endeavoured to
show why modern science,as erroneouslyconceived
the universal spiritualistic
of,has failed to investigate
phenomena which crowded upon it on every side ;
that this failure was priori^
due to an a a prepossession,

a state of mind which assumed

before investigation
that there was nothingto investigate ; and I showed
that this a priori was as gross a superstitionas that of

the lowest and most degradedsavages ; nay, a grosser

one.
I showed scientificmen
that whenever investigated
these phenomena they were convinced of their
and
actuality, that those scientific writers who fused
re-

investigatewere
to obligedto sustain their
publishedtheses, and other writings, by perverting
or ignoring opposing facts, and suppressing all
opposingevidence.
I also endeavoured to show that that question
was

not one of mere communication between those now

and the
living spiritual individualities of those already
dead, but that the new psychology involved much
more, and that
probablyintegrations were at hand
which would include all apparently supernormal
phenomena, without actuallybeing limited in inter- pretation
to any singleone, or any singleclass of
these,itself.
I also endeavoured to show that the physical
sciences,dealingsimply with the surrounding and
temporary phenomena of physics,were totallyin-
capable
of investigating, with these data alone,any
of the propositions on which the physicalsciences
themselves were founded ; that by these sciences
alone we could know nothing of causation,of the
infinite, of time and space, of lifeor of mind, of matter
even, or of spirit.That what the physicalsciences
reallycould take cognisanceof,so to speak,were such
facts as a set of barnacles on a mighty ocean steamship
could consider, when carried alongthrough unknown
seas, neither knowing to what they were attached,nor
anythingof the mechanism or structure of the vessel
 SUMMARY OF PARTS I. AND II. 171
which carried them, or of the minds and forces which
directed and moved them, or of the boundless uni-
verse
around. It could not be otherwise. And I
have shown, from the words of the most eminent
of the teachers of physicalscience,that these ments
state-
are true, and that the actual concrete ments
achieve-
of physicalscience in these directions are mostly
confined to simply observing, recordingand classify-
ing,
the facts which came before them, and often not
even most of these.
In the third part of this work I shall deavour
en-

that the whole basis of materialism

to show
is a mistake in source, as well as in fact.
'' '*
I use the term materialism not in a restricted
sense as dealingwith our conceptionsof what we gard
re-

as matter, but in the acceptedbroader sense, as

contradistinguished from transcendentalism ; as

synonymous with empiricism, in which the material

or substance, or phenomenal, is self-sufficient in
itself; as automatic, so to speak, and as divorced
from controlling,extraneous
any or invoking
spiritual intelligence and control ; as, in fact,as
stated by Romanes, a universe in which no sonal
per-
God is concerned in causation,in which
divine volition is not the ever-present factor,and
in which spiritualismis but a man-implanted super-stition.

I shall endeavour to show that the great thinkers

and writers,on whose
testimonythe popularviews of
believers in materialism rest,not one of them, ever
taught or believed anythingof the sort,that they have
been totallymisunderstood,and that their actual
beliefs and teachingswere quitethe opposite; when
not the opposite, that they were led into failures con-
ceded

by themselves ; and that when such behefs

were justlyeven attributed to them, before they
ceased writingthey explainedor recanted the views
attributed to them ; and in the single case of Haeckel,
that he acknowledged his incompetency to deal with
the problems he treated,that his facts were fically
scienti-
misstated,and that,finally, the very authority,
Romanes, on whom he most relied,after Haeckel's
 SPIRIT AND MATTER
172

work had appeared, and after Romanes had actually

studied the questions for himself, repudiated the

whole scheme of Haeckel, and re demonstrated, and

fully accepted, the spiritualistic position as already

established.
174 SPIRIT AND MATTER

The arraignmentis not overdrawn -; on the con-

trary

it might be greatlylengthened. And this re-

lates

to littlefacts which came directly under scientific

cognisance. When we reach the basic facts which
alone make the acquirements of science valid,the
whole field is befogged,and there is very littleactual
lightof science anywhere.
For example,the physical sciences are all based on
gravitation, and yet, as I have alreadystated,there
is not a of science in the world who can
man tell you
what gravitationis. Not only this,but it contra-
dicts
every axiom of physicalscience itself. A
thing
cannot act where it is not ; and yet gravitation
acts
'' "
across void spaces of millions of millions of miles.
A forcecannot be providedwith hooks to reach across
space and pullobjects,nor can there be a gravitational
push, for Maxwell showed that lines of pushing force
by their impingement would set every bit of concrete
matter in the universe
in ten seconds. ablaze
Chemical affinity works in unknown and diverse
ways in different substances,yet no one can tell why.
The atomic theory has long been known to be unten-
able,
in fact,it contradicts the principles
of specific
heat,and is only held to as a working hypothesis; yet
what is there to take its place? Nothing which
science has found.
We predicatedthe ether to explain the
have
phenomena of light, yet the ether
heat and electricity,
is altogether
incompatiblewith any other physical
substance known to science. We even hold fast to
the emission-terminology of light,while we have
abandoned the emission theory for another, which,
itself,from phenomena which it cannot explain,is
doubtful.
No explaina sun-spot; no one can explain
one can

the proper motions in all directions, and at all

velocities,of the stars ; no one can explainanything
that reallyneeds explaining ; while Kant's table of
antinomies gave a series of scientific propositions, one

alternative of each of which must be true, yet of

which speaking,are inconceivable.
both, scientifically
Who knows what is ?
infinity and yet who knows
 METHODS AND ACQUISITIONS 175
how there can be only a
possibly finiteuniverse ? In
measuringan infinite universe an inch and a thousand
million miles precisely
are of the same dimensions. If
we descend the scale, we can divide and subdivide
to infinity, and yet one rotatingsystem, infinitely
is
small, relatively as largeas our own solar system, or
any other,however large,and we have not yet begun
in our descent to the infinitely little.
The real problems are not investigated by science
at all. We spend our time in teachingschool-book
science, that is,sure-enoughscience, and such men as

Sir William Crookes and Lord Kelvin look on aghast.

When the phonograph was first exhibited before
the French Academy of Sciences,says Flammarion,
a distinguished member rose and demanded that the
miserable ventriloquist be draggedout from under the
machine, and exposed to the wrath of the genuine
men of science there present. And six months later,
when phonographs were selling at ten dollars apiece,
the same savant proclaimedagain,on pure a prioriy
''
that vile metal could never reproduce human
phonation."
Take, by chance, a mathematical problem out of
the mass ; Jevons says that the chances are a million

to one that it cannot be solved at all,and that we

do not even know how to approach it. Yet Sir John
Herschel tells us that the atoms, those wonderful
''
atoms, involve all the ologiesand all the ometries,
and in these
days,"he says, we know something of ^^

what that implies. Their movements, their inter-

changes,
their hates and loves,their attractions and
repulsions,their correlations,
their what not, are all
determined on the very instant. There is no tion,
hesita-
no blundering,no trial and error. A problem
of dynamics which would drive Lagrange mad is
solved instanter. A differential equation which,
algebraically written out, would belt the earth,is in-
tegrated
in an eye-twinkle ; and all the numerical
calculation worked out in a way to frightenZerah
Colburn, George Bidder,or Jedediah Buxton.''
But he does not pause here ; like Romanes, he
pursues force to its ultimate, and declares that force,
176 SPIRIT AND MATTER

any force,all force of which we

^^
have cognisance is
connected with volition,and by inevitable conse-
quence
with motive, with intellect, and with all those
attributes of mind in which personality consists."
It was againstthis spiritually manifested basis
that Herbert Spencer rang the changes of his a priori^
which settled it without investigation ; and in which
Huxley took little interest, and Hume dreamed that
such thingswere to be gotten rid of as superstitions,
by the popular vote of a few friends in the gallery.
Not searchingin these fertile fields, where then did
the men of physicalscience of those days search ? In
those fields of which Sir John Herschel,in continuing,
*'

says : Will without Motive, Power without Design,

Thought opposed to Reason, would be admirable in
explaininga chaos, but would render little aid in
accountingfor anything else." It must not be for- gotten
that in accountingfor the universe by a series
of accidents without significance, the accounting
itselfis one of these very accidents, and is itselfequally
'^
without significance. The motto must be All or
none."
Paul Janet,writingso long ago as 1864, when
rational psychology, we may say, was just emerging,
*'
wrote in the prefaceto his work, The Materialism
of the Present Day," as follows : "

"The fact which explains the success of materialism

is an inclination, natural to the human mind, and very
powerfulnow " viz. the inclination to unity. People
want to explainall thingsby one singlecause, one
singlephenomenon, one singlelaw. This tendency
is,no doubt, a useful and necessary one ; without
it,no science would be possible ; but of how many
errors is it not the source ? How many imaginary
analogies, how many importantomissions, how many
fanciful creations have resulted in philosophyfrom
the love of a useless simplicity ? No one denies,of
course, that unity is the ultimate substratum of
things, both at the beginningand at the end. No one
denies that one and the same harmony governs the
visible world and the invisible world, bodies and
spirits. ...
No doubt matter and mind must have
 METHODS AND ACQUISITIONS 177
a common reason in the thought of God, and there
it is that we should seek their ultimate unity. But
what eye has penetratedso far ? Who can imagine
that he has explained that origincommon to all
creatures ? Who can do so except him who is the
reason of
everything? Above all,what weakness,
what ignoranceit is to limit the real existence of
thingsto those fugitive appearances which our senses
perceive; to take our imaginingsas the measure of
creation, and to worship, as the new materialists do,not
even the atom which had, at least, some semblance of
' '

solidity, but an I know not what ; nameless in every

' ' '*
language,and which we might call infinite dust !
Can we now see why so eminent a man of
science as Huxley justlydrew the physicalcircle of
solid and sure enough scientificachievement so small
that he could advise us to neglect as worthless even the
minute residuum left within its invisible boundaries ?
Surely there is ample room here for modesty, but
except among very greatest leaders of science
the
we find very littleof it,and among as a rule,
specialists,
none at all. All honour to such leaders as rule the
world of science,but let us not be beguiledby the
imitation, school-book science,which claims and
gives,as solid chunks of wisdom and demonstration,
crude speculations presentedas facts,which disprove
themselves as soon and which will not bear
as printed,

the test of even a penny-dip without instant disap-

pearance.
''
Someone has said to me : You are hard on
"
science ; I science ; I was
am born into
not hard on

an atmosphere of science,I breathed it in the home

I have always loved and followed science,
circle, and
for the past fortyyears I have done almost nothing
else. Science issystematisedknowledge, far be and
it from me to decryknowledge at all,and stillfurther
to decry the systematisationof knowledge. But
when I see the speak for
bigotryof men who claim to
science,but the latchets of whose shoes they are un-
worthy

to unloose,when I find sham and charlatanry

take the place of honesty and investigation, when I
the whole basis of genuine science flouted and
178 SPIRIT AND MATTER

repudiatedin the name of an priori,

a which is the
exact measure of a man's unfaiUng ignorance and
conceit ; then I want to sound justone note of warn-
ing,

for an intellectual shame has been put upon

science which it does not deserve,and should not be
made to bear.
What is wanted is to see science put on her spec-
tacles,
and get honestlydown to hard work on these
difficultbut universal and most importantsubjects.
When that time comes, and it is rapidlycoming,
psychism,in its broadest sense, will be tried by a jury
of its peers, and the verdict will be in accordance with
the evidence of all mankind, everywhere and from
the beginning,and will not represent merely a self-
sufficient ignoringof the whole testimony,and an
a priori prejudgment of the whole case. The facts
will not be superciliously thrown aside,the evidence
will not be pervertedor garbled,inconvenient facts
will not be suppressed, the truth will be elicited,as it
would be by skilled lawyers, and the opinionrendered,
as it would be by able and impartial judges, and science
will then win a crown of imperishable glory. Nay,
more, in that day the judgment will be found flected
re-

upon and applicableto many other great

problems, now the despair of science,and sohd
achievements will come in all directions.
I have also been asked, if science has so often
changed its position,how do you know that what you
claim as scientifically
true of these demonstrations
and conclusions will not also be displacedin favour
of somethingelse ?
I do not know, but I do know that psychologyis
coming to simply because every other ex-
its own, planation

has gone to the wall as inadequateand un- supported

and is the onlyexplanation

while this is left,
left to account for the facts. I do not beheve, to use
a State of Maine colloquialism, that we are going to
''
learn dumber.'* Philosophy in every age and of
every grade has always held to the spiritual theory.
Not a vaUd system of philosophyhas ever been pre-
sented
of which this is not true. Science,to save its
own position, has always contended that philosophy
 METHODS AND ACQUISITIONS 179
was worthless,that it was and imagina-
speculation tion.
But now science has proven itselfworthless to
account for its own facts,and cannot explainits own
fundamentals ; and nothing is left but to take up
the flouted problems,and go over the abundance of
evidence from clouds of honest witnesses,and for
science to deal with these problems in a wider way,
and then, unless the universe and mankind are one

huge and ghastly jest,we will have to land in

transcendentalism, and when science examines
transcendentalism,as it examines light,heat and
electricity,it will find that these problems and those
of the other phenomena of nature are identical. If
there is a greater integration at hand, which will
include all the phenomena of psychism,it can only
be by includingthe physicalas well. The natural
super-
will have disappeared, but the supernormal
will remain.
And I know this ;
that never has a universal
consensus prevailedamong mankind in which further
research has not demonstrated the presence of a great
truth ; that the phenomena encountered, not only
in spiritualism,but in every branch of religionand
science,nay, of common life even, are inexplicable,
except by takingin psychism as a prime factor ; and
that the problemsbecome simplerevery time the base
is broadened, and the demonstrations become clearer
and surer in the same proportion. Everything is
leadingdirectlyaway from brute matter as it was once

taught,into mind as it expands and broadens before

and around us, and mind, which is what we think
with,can never be
displaced,
so longas we have to use
it to think with ; but must improve and increase as
rapidlyand as certainlyas we dispassionately take
hold, observe, study, think and demonstrate. The
knowledge of infinitethingsis within our grasp ; shall
we take it ?
Scientificteachers have been in the habit of ing
speak-
too much ex cathedra.
It has been said that much
of the dogmatic teachingof the clergyhas been due
to the fact,that when preachers stand up in their
puJpitsand jaw,nobody else has a rightto jaw back.
i8o SPIRIT AND MATTER

The Bible tells us that the countenance of a friend

sharpeneththe countenance that is
of a friend,and
what is happening to-daywith science. As Professor
De Morgan said of those pseudo-teachers, ''Theyneed
taming, and will get it ? They wear a priest's
cast-
off garb, dyed to escape detection." Such people
need to rub against each other and againstother
peoplemore and harder.
Do not for a moment imagine that all men of
science are of that ilk. A third of a century or more

ago the prospect was black indeed ; they were facturing,

manu-

goingto manufacture, livingprotoplasm

or

in gallipots ; and believed and taught that the

physicalbasis of life was a chemical glue,crawling,
or gettingready to crawl,all over the bottom of the
sea ; and that,with but another short step, it could
be compounded in the chemist's laboratory. But
livingprotoplasm never was so compounded, and it
never will be ; for we now know that living protoplasm
is a livingmachine, and, like all operativemachines,
can only be produced by intelligence of a purposive
character ; and with the generaldisappearance of this
school slowlypassed away the dark clouds,and a new
era dawned.
But we must not forgetthat the fault was not
altogether with these teachers ; new means, and, in
fact,whole new sciences, came into existence almost
with their disappearance, and their greatest crime,
for blunders
some are worse than crimes, was their
dogmatisingon insufficient data. Of this they were
guilty,and thereby they betrayed science,and fed
the lowest passions(^f-^n ignorant and credulous
public.
The newer and and
greater psychologists men of
science and philosophyare all with us to-day. What
we have to encounter now is that dumb inertia born
in those old, black days of brute matter and em-
pirical

materialism ; and in its remaining progeny,

those half-taught stick
followers who, like clay-eaters,
to their diet of because
mud, they stopped learning,
when their old half-blind leaders ascended to heaven
and learned better.
 i82 SPIRIT AND MATTER

of intelligence
over ignorance,of demonstration over
a priori,
of honest scientific methods over a physical

hypothesis which begins with the world around us

and runs into a cul de sac both backwards and for-

wards
; as it is a vindication of both philosophyand
science,and a recognition
as well of the loftiness and
dignityof man and his universal mental structure
and belief ; as it cannot fail to lead to a living ledge
know-
of man's brotherhood and God's fatherhood,
instead of a vague and ineffective routine,and so
transform all our ethics,and make oppressionand
selfishness opprobrious, as it must ; and as it spells
freedom, it inevitablypointsto a higher and fuller
future life. But there is one eminent writer and man
of science of whom I wish to speak more especially,
(/IHCii^. because my own experiences have been a humble
c^uL. c' ru.-^ counterpart of his. It is the late lamented Romanes.
Born and nurtured in a somewhat loose orthodoxy,
as years passed on there came doubt, then infidelity,
and surrender to materialism ; then again, as the work

went on, and the horizon

widened, doubt once more,
but this time doubt of materialism, and then came like
a rush the fierce demand for more and harder work,
continued for years, for deeper investigation, for
broader study, and demonstration followed demon-
stration,
the old black structure of nihilism splitinto
cracks,its lath and
plasterfell away, and the whole
crumbled before
lightof investigation
the and trial,
and at last there came final certainty of the dominat-

^ ^ ing truth, and intellectual peace and spiritual rest.

Among the great factors of these demonstrations
iwas the study of the psychism of lower animals,the
psychologyof livingcreatures too minute to be seen
except with ~~high-power microscopes ; not merely
monocellular organisms, but living forms far below
and which heretofore had been wholly
/ the cell itself,
\ unknown and unsuspected. Here are thinking,feel- ing,
sporting, livingcreatures, with memory, ship,
friend-
love,with likes and dislikes, and manifesting the
power of deliberate choice ; in fact,with all the acts
and movements, with all the mental and psychical
attributes manifested in man, in kind,and, in many
 THE NEW PSYCHOLOGY 183
cases, with wondrously intelligent
a foresight.Here
we have choice,intention,memory, fright; as Binet
says : ''In both vegetable and animal organisms
micro-
phenomena are encountered which pertain
to a highlycomplex psychology,and which appear
quiteout of proportionto the minute mass that serves
them as a substratum.'*
It is the microscopicalmass, the matter, the
material, which serves these livingbodies as a sub- stratum,
and here we find the same wonderful psychi-
cal
phenomena working in this substratum (and only
restricted in degree by physiological structure), as

that which surrounds and penetrates livingman

to-day. If this was evolution,it did not come by
slow degrees,but came with a leap. I am sure, I)
know, that no competent observer can possibly
penetrate these arcana, and not return as firmly
convinced of God and religion, of psychiclife apart
^
from physicalstructure, and living structure built up /T)
y .

alone by the living hand of a livingand mind-giving"JhdjC^

God, as he is convinced that he can see, and think ^^ ^
and reason. It is a divine panorama moving before ~/
his eyes ; it is a livinggarden which blossoms out in; K/^^'^^
man into human soul and highestreason ; and it is a '^-/
psychiclife which would shame man, if man himself J^^'^ "

had not this psychiclife as well,and of it much more. \ J^rc"^

*
And it bears widespread the buds, not the promise,
but the livingbuds of future life. God opens wide
all His doors down there.
George John Romanes, Cambridge graduate,the
young friend and companion,pupil, able assistant and
co-worker with Charles Darwin, and his expounder
and commentator after his teacher's death, orthodox
in childhood,was at once immersed in the world of
scientific blackness and materialism of his day, and
followed physicalbiologyas one of its most learned
and able students and writers. His works are in every
; his
library fame is world-wide.
In those darker days from which, while ever

striving
to emerge, he had not yet emerged, in 1878,
''
he published a short treatise, A Candid Examination
of Theism," which was the best and strongestof the
i84 SPIRIT AND MATTER

books tillthen opposing the spiritual

written philo-
sophy
of man, and with a sceptical which
conclusion,
was extensivelyand triumphantly quoted by the
opponents of true psychology. No wonder Haeckel
loved Romanes " then.
But twenty years later,and notlong before his
*'
death, he entered upon a new work, A Candid
"
Examination Religion,"
of in which he says : When
I wrote the precedingtreatise I did not sufficiently
appreciate the immense importance of human nature
as distinguished from physicalnature, in any inquiry
touching Theism. But since then I have seriously
studied anthropology(including the science of com-
parative

rehgions), psychologyand metaphysics,with

the result of clearly seeingthat human nature is the
most important part of nature as a whole whereby to
investigate the theory of Theism. This I ought to
have anticipated on merely a priorigrounds,and no
doubt should have perceived, had I not been too much
immersed in merelyphysical research."
'*
His final conclusion is as follows :
"
1st. Gradual
evolution is in analogy with God's other work.
2nd. It does not leave Him without witness at

any during the historical period. 3rd.

time It
gives ample scope for perseveringresearch at all
times."
'' "
The witness referred to is revelation from the
divine spiritual.Intelligent
or souls,seekingminds,
can learn no greater lesson than from these posthu-
mously
publishedand fragmentarypapers of Romanes,
edited by Gore, and published under the title
*'
Thoughts on Religion."
What a pictureRomanes, who had been through
it all,paintsof the soul-starving misery of a material-
istic
philosophy,one not merely without spirit, but
without indisputablecommunication between the
spiritual and ourselves. Constituted as we are, I
would be willing to stake the whole validity of spiritual-
ism
on this eternal sense of starvation alone ; it is not
only totallyinexplicable
without spiritualism,but it
contains the direct and requiring
proofwithin itself,
no other evidence,under two of the three criteria
 THE NEW PSYCHOLOGY 185
of direct truth formulated by President McCosh, to
which I shall later refer. Says Wordsworth :

"
Trailingclouds of glory do we come
From God, who is our home."

Peoplewho have never had a home, never known

parents, absent friends,or protectors, can never

know what it is to be homesick. Homesickness is a

direct proof of a home. Speaking of the misery of
'*
those whodeny or heed not the internal intuition
of divineorigin,"as Romanes calls it,this great
investigator
original and scientific writer continues :
''
Some men are not conscious of the cause of this
misery ; this,however, does prevent the fact of
not
their beingmiserable. For the most part they conceal
from themselves,
the fact as well as possible by occupy-
ing
their minds with society,sport, frivolityof all
kinds,or, if intellectually with
disposed, science,
art,
business,etc.
literature, This,however, is but to fill
the starvingbellywith husks. I know from experi-
ence
the intellectual distractions of scientificresearch,
speculation,and
philosophical artistic pleasures
;
but am also well aware that when all these are taken
togetherand well sweetened to taste, in respect of
consequent reputation,
means, social
position,
etc.,
the whole concoction is but as high confectionery
to
a starvingman. He may cheat himself for a time
"
especially if he be a strong man ^into the belief "

that he is nourishinghimself by denying his natural

appetitebut soon finds he was made for some together
al-
different kind of food,even though of much
less tastefulness as far as the palateis concerned.
''
Some men never even acknowledge this articu-lately
or distinctly to themselves,yet always show
it plainly enough to others. It has been my lot to
. . .

know not a few of the famous men of our generation,

and I have always observed that this is profoundly
' '
true. Like all other moral satisfactions, this soon
pallsby custom, and as soon as one end of distinction
is reached,another is pined for. There is no finality
to rest in,while disease and death are alwaysstanding
i86 SPIRIT AND MATTER

in the background. Custom may even blind men to

their own misery,so far as not to make them reaUse
what is wanting ; yet the want is there.
''
I take it then as unquestionablytrue that this
whole negativeside of the subjectproves a vacuum
in the soul of man which nothing can fillsave faith
in God."
We have heretestimony of a great student,
the
a great leader,a great teacher,an expert, who has
himself gone through all these experiences, and whose
life has been largely cast among the living exemplars
of the great truth that men may have everythingto
make them happy, everythingto gratify their desires,
everythingto satisfytheir wants, everythingto oc- cupy

their minds, wealth,fame, reputation, pleasure,

travel,work or idleness as they prefer, intellectual
pursuits, scientific recreations, material advantages,
everything ay, everythingbut one, and that one is
"

faith in God, which is spiritualism, and without that

all they have pallsby custom, is but as high con- fectionery

to a starvingman, thingsto cheat them- selves

with, and with it all,with all that this world
can give,they but feed their starvingbellies with
husks "
they are filled with misery, and miserable
even though blind to the cause of their ever-present
and obvious misery.
On the other hand are those who have nothing,
who have poverty, privation, lack of friends, lack of
help,lack of opportunity, lack of everythingbut one,
and that the spirituafistic faith in God, and yet for
whom, in this world, this spiritualism has no earthly
or physicalreward, amid this tangle of ever-present
selfishness, but who yet grasp with a wild joy, and
hold fast in a death-grapple, to that sole thing which
makes life worth having,and makes our lives worth
living. It will not be always so, it is growing better
day by day, and when the whole world has seen and
knows then the great earthlyreward
"
will come for
all,as well for those who now feed on husks in misery
as for those who feed on the great provender of the
spirit.But even to-daythis is the promisedreward ;
far
hark to the message ; it is a Christian hymn, but,
 THE NEW PSYCHOLOGY 187
more, it is a universal^
spiritual
hymn, the hymn of
self-sacrifice:

" '
Is there diadem, as monarch,
'
That His
brow adorns ?
*
Yea, a crown in very surety,
But of thorns.'

" '
If I find him, if I follow.
'
What his guerdon here ?
*
Many a sorrow, many a labour.
Many a tear;'

" *
If I ask him to receive me.
Will he say me nay ?
'

*
Not till earth, and not tillheaven
Pass away.' "

Think of
Thermopylae ! and then think of a
successful speculationin stocks ! Many a labour,
''

"
many a tear ! Ay, many, tillthe round world, and
all that therein is, has learned its higher life; and
this lesson spiritualism alone can teach and bring
home to every wandering soul.
''
Do rightto the widow, judge for the fatherless,
giveto the poor, defend the orphan, clothe the naked,
heal the broken and weak, laugh not a lame man to
scorn, defend the maimed, and let the blind man come
into the sightof thy clearness. Keep safe the old
and young within thy walls. Whenever thou findest
the dead, take and bury them.'*
''
That is the teachingof spiritualism ; for God is
a spirit."
''
Mr S. R. Crockett, in his Adventurer in Spain,'*
apostrophises a donkey who has broken his tether.
''
He had found a good bank of grass, fenced about
with succulent reed, enduringbed-straw,and spiced
with the thistle of his ancestors. He had all at mand.
com-
His sides were plump with the fulness of
them. The clear water of a canal was on the other
side of the way to drink from when he was athirst.
Cudgel had thwacked his sides,and would do so
again. But he had
forgottenthe past, and never
learned to forecast
the future, wherein he was a
better philosopher.His mind to him a kingdom was
" ^the realm of the present. It was shut in by twitch
i88 SPIRIT AND MATTER

grass, barriered by ground ivy, and down the long

vista which is futurityhe would see only infinite
thistle and infinite wild teasle. Death " he had
never even heard of
that. He had, indeed, seen
thingsthat lay still" things that the futile two-
legged put into deep holes. But these were only
asleep, and too wise to waken. Besides,the Hke
would never happen to him. He had to be roused
up that his panniersmight be placed astride his back,
and sometimes his master would mount behind
up "

but why think of such things? Had he yet eaten all

the thistles ? No ? Worlds and worlds of thistles
"
without end ! Amen !
How like Romanes* description
of this ilk among
the two-legged!
Contrast with this the
pictureof the beautiful
aspiringreligious soul,from the ''Memories,"of Max
Mtiller,
whose entire competency, as a student of all
religions,
no one will question:
''
the waterfall has clothed the grey
Here, where
rocks on either side with green moss, the eye suddenly
recognisesa blue forget-me-notin the cool shade.
It is one of the millions of sisters now blossoming
alongall the rivulets and in all the meadows of earth,
and which
have blossomed ever since the first morn-
ing

of creation shed itsentire inexhaustible wealth over

the world. Every vein in its leaves,every stamen in
its cup, every fibre of its roots, is numbered, and no
power on earth can make the number more or less.
Still more, when we strain our weak eyes and, with
superhuman power, cast a searchingglanceinto
more

the secrets of nature, when

the microscopediscloses
to us the silent laboratoryof the seed,the bud and
the blossom, do we recognise the ever-recurring form
in the most minute tissues and cells, and the eternal
unchangeablenessof Nature's plansin the most deli- cate
fibre. Could we piercestill deeper,the same
form-world would reveal itself, and the vision would
lose itself as in a hall hung with mirrors. Such an
infinity as this lies hidden in this littleflower. If we
look up to the sky, we see again the same system "

the moons revolving around the t he

planets, planets
 SPIRIT AND MATTER
igo

and thorns, His is man with his joys and sorrows.

'
The least important thing does not happen except
* "
as God wills it !
'' '*
This, of course,
is the grand sweet of the
song
eternal spiritualism of the universe. We hear it in

darkness and sorrow, we lift our eyes to it in the

glorious heavens it surrounds and leads and follows

;

and death is but a transition from place to place,

us,
and not from something to nothingness.

**
The bright celestial wheels,
God's glorious starry wheels,
Before their awful majesty the staggered vision reels
;
'Twixt sun and outer planet
A billion leagues to span it.
Ten thousand times that vast expanse to reach the first fixed star
;
And evermore, as space recedes, new countless millons are,
Star clusters jewel-dyed, which flush and pale,
Sun-couples, slowly wheeling.
Vast nebulae, revealing
New sun and world births in their eddying trail.
And man dare lift his comrade eyes with God, and pierce the veil.

**
The slow sepulchral wheels,
The hearse's solemn wheels.
That bear the sacred form whose lips eternal silence seals
;
The cortege slowly creeping,
The mourners softly weeping.
While friends recount, with measured voice, the virtues of the dead
;
The dead ? Nay, new processions now are passing overhead.
Not to leave a fellow-mortal at the grave,
But to welcome the supernal
Home again to life eternal.
To lead to higher realms the set-free slave,
Higher far than e'er the most aspiring mortal dared to crave."
 CHAPTER XXV

SECTARIAN THEOLOGY IN THE LIGHT OF UNIVERSAL

RELIGION

What a sharp comedown it should be for the

evangeHst I have alreadyreferred to, who says that
the idea that Christ is here on earth with us is
nonsense, and that those who believe such nonsense

are encumberers of the earth. This heathen notion

of an absentee God, as I have already explained,
derived from a careful instead
culling, of a broad
knowledge, scripture, is altogetherdue
of to the
sectarian alliance with materialism,which Romanes
characterised as a fatal mistake, by which nature is
made the producerand sustainer, and God is relegated
to a seat somewhere aloft,a proprietor, as one may
say, who takes no account of the working of his own

establishment, but only turns up at pay day, while

Satan, the locum tenens,is always at hand to obstruct
and confound. No one could carry on a successful
business in that way.
It is not the evangelistwho is important to me,
but he represents a type of that form of Christianity
which has made almost impossible
religion among its
abjectdisciples as a vitalising power ; and which, by
its example to the public, has swept countless
millions into infidelity. Primary schools,and even
schools for adults,are hard to keep in order at best
" let someone, during school hours, call out to the
pupilsthat the teacher has gone off home, and then
watch for the ensuing entente.
Here is a local newspaper item in point :
''
Lights went out for half-an-hour last night in
the Universitydormitories, due to a broken dynamo
at the power-house. There was a generalrush for
191
192 SPIRIT AND MATTER

the triangle, and an ear-splitting din arose from tin-

horns,
pistols, tin-pansand throats. Fireworks and
red fire were set oil. In half-an-hour the lights were

on againand the students studyingharder than ever."

But this latter would not have happened, if the
lights were not to be relit until the Day of Judgment,
To this absentee sort of theologyI much preferthe
religionof the little girlwho, returningfrom one
uncle's funeral,and with sickness prevalentamong
many of her relatives, prayed for poor dear auntie,
and for Cousin Charlie,and for little Cousin Mamie,
who is so sick,you know, and for mama and for poor
papa, who is not at all well, and then concluded,
*'
And do you, O Lord, take rightgood care of yourself
too, for if anythinghappens to you, we will all go to
pieces.'*
Or that of another littlegirlwho, tryingin vain
to drive her dog back, at last indignantly exclaimed
*'
to him : I know that God follows me around where,
every-
and watches everythingI do, and Tm not going
to have you trapesingafter me too."
The whole is simply and
difficulty solelydue to
the strange fact that, with the bulk of the people,
with all of such people,creation is looked upon as
something which took place in the past, and that
nature is something actingin the present as a sub-
stitute.
It is this theologicalnotion that has re-
legated

God and Christ to a distant heaven, where

they are sittingbeside each other to the sound of
music,and have left the devil to look after the souls,
and nature after the bodies ; and the allied
to look
materialistic-science notion that, since souls cannot
be physically seen, or smelt, or tasted,they do not
exist. Nature, they say, performs and looks after
and yet nature
everything, itselfis concededlyso blind
that it can itself not see, nor can it smell or taste,
though it is supposed to manufacture seers, and
smellers and tasters. Conceive for one moment that
creation has never ceased ; that it is always goingon ;
and always will be going on, and the whole difficulty
vanishes. God is in heaven ; but heaven is wherever
God is, and, if God is omnipresent,then heaven is any-
 SECTARIAN THEOLOGY 193
where and everywhere. As Christ said : The kingdom
of heaven is within yourselves ; and the human
body is the Hving temple of God, and the universe
His workshop. We are in this vast workshop,where
machineryis not merelybeingused,but is beingbuilt,
and being designed,and planned and carried out,
yesterday,to-day and for ever ; and volitions and
intelligence
are everywhere,and creative power and
intellectare absent for an instant.
never

That religionis too deeply embedded in the

very structure of mankind to permit even society
to continue except on a religious basis is clearly
''
pointedout by Gustave Le Bon, in his Psychology
of Peoples.*'The author is himself intensely
rationalistic,in the larger sense of the term, but he
"
is compelledto say : Among the various ideas by
which the peopleshave been guided,the ideas which
are the beacons of history, the polesof civilisation,
religious ideas have played too preponderatingand
too fundamental a part for us not to devote a special

chapterto them. Religious beliefs have always con-

stituted

the most important element in the life of

peoples,and, in consequence, of their history. The
most considerable historical events,those which have
had the most colossal influence,have been the birth
and death of gods. With a new religiousidea a new
civilisation is born into the world. At all the ages of
humanity, in ancient times as in modern times,the
fundamental questions have been rehgious
always
questions. If humanity could allow its gods to die
it might be said of such an event that, as regardsits
consequences, it would be the most importantevent
that had taken placeon the surface of our planetsince
the birth of the firstcivilisations.*'
*'
Moreover, if at the present day old society
our

totters on its foundations, and finds all its institutions

profoundlyshaken, the reason is that it is losingmore

and more the beliefson which it had existed up till

now.

When itshall have lost them entirely,

a new civilisation,
founded on a new faith, will necessarily take its place.
Historyshows us that peoplesdo not long survive
the disappearanceof their gods. The civilisations
N
194 SPIRIT AND MATTER

that are born also die with them.

with them There
is nothingso destructive as the dust of dead gods."
We say to one who is about to be overwhelmed
by disaster,who suffers beneath the slings and arrows
of outrageous fortune, who is about to face the
unknown wonders of death, and what lies beyond,
'' "
Be a man ! If Le Bon is right,and he is right,
*'
this is the same as to say, Be a religious man," for
that is conceded to be the only manhood which counts
or which can count in our present world, with our
present civilisation, our present knowledge and our
faith and hope and charity. With these we are triply
armed ; without these we are poor, miserable and
defenceless indeed.
But Le Bon is wrong
believing in
that men create
their own gods, in the sense that they consciously
make images representing nothing,if that is what he
means by the phrase,and then convert them into
gods,and worship them. They may make images of
their gods,that is,embody in representative form the
intuitional and disembodied gods which are implanted
in their souls. Anything else than this is nonsense.
If positivismerred so far,in making humanity in
mass a deity, and the result was so preposterous that
Huxley could only say of it that he would as soon
think of worshippinga wilderness of apes, how much
more preposterous to imagine that men deliberately
set themselves to work to manufacture gods,not to
represent,nor to embody, the conceptionof, nor to
present to conscious sightpre-existing gods,but to
actually manufacture them de novo, in cold blood,
out of stone, mud or stick, and then crouch down and
worship them.
The artist must have the model in his soul far
more vividlythan that which he afterwards repro- duces
in colour,or bronze, or marble ; the architect
must see his completedstructure before he puts pencil
to paper ; the bridge-builder must see his bridgein
all its form and material before he puts it into shape ;
and the inventor must have his invention ready for
use before his reduces it to practice.
Men could never endow their gods with super-
 SECTARIAN THEOLOGY 195
natural powers, unless they had cognisance, before
they made them, of supernatural powers ; and if they
had this
knowledge beforehand,then the supernatural
powers were the gods,not manufactured by them, and
what they did was simply to give them tangiblere-
presentation.

In the illustrations contained in

survivingMaya
manuscripts and codices of Yucatan, Borgian,
Dresden, Troano, etc.,written by the Maya priest-
hood
long before the Spanish conquest, the whole
process of manufacturingtheir idols is depicted. And
the Mayas were among the most religiouspeoplesof
antiquity.
Here we see one man chopping out the figure of the
face with a hatchet, another boring out the eyes,
another chiselling the nose into shape,another paint-
ing
the figure ; and Dr Cyrus Thomas, in his study of
the manuscript Troano (U.S.Government tions
Contribu-
to North American Ethnology, 1882), says :
*'
The idols, while in the process of manufacture, are
usuallyrepresented by the heads only ; those yet not
paintedor ornamented, without any other lines than
those necessary to show the parts ororgans, as in
Fig- 33^ whichshows also the method of Carving
(see Plate XV.*) ; those which are painted or orna- mented

(Fig.34). One of the instruments used by

them in carvingtheir wooden images, I judge from
its form, as shown in Fig.35, was metallic."
Imagine,if you can, a tombstone-maker carving
''
a slab, sacred to the memory," etc., in which the
objectto which the memory was sacred was to be the
tombstone itself! That would not be ignoranceor
insanity, it would be idiocy.
Captain Dennett, R.N., in his narrative of Parry's
second voyage to the Arctic regions, inserts about a
hundred pages
'

relatingto the psychic life of the

Eskimos, from the records of the first Christian
missionaries who visited these natives,and which
description is of extreme interest. I will make a few

very brief extracts :

''
Before any missionaries arrived in the country^
Greenlanders were supposed to be gross idolaters,
196 SPIRIT AND MATTER

who prayed to the and

sacrificed to the devil,
sun

that he might be propitious

to them in their fishery.
Mariners were led to these conclusions from the
discourse of the natives, which they could not
understand, and varietyof circumstances."
from a
''
But after obtaininga more intimate ance
acquaint-
with their language,the missionaries were led
to entertain a contrary opinion,from their various
notions concerning the soul and spirits in general,
and from their evident anxietyabout their probable
state after death. From free conversations' with the
natives in their perfectly
wild state, in which, how-
ever,
care must be taken to make no personalapplica-
tions,
and not to insist upon any duties to which they
are disinclined,
it is very apparent that their fore-
fathers
believed in
Being who resides above the
a

clouds,and to whom they paid religiousworship.'*

''
A company of baptisedGreenlanders one day
expressed their astonishment, that they had spent
their lives in a state of such complete ignoranceand
thoughtlessness.One of the party immediatelyrose
'
up and spoke as follows : It is true, we were

ignorantheathens,and knew nothingof God and of a

Redeemer ; for who could have informed us of their
'
existence,before you (addressingthe missionaries)
*
arrived. Yet I have often thought,a Kayak with
the darts belongingto it does not exist of itself,
but
must be made with the skill of men's
trouble and
hands ; and he who does not know the use of it
it.
easilyspoils Now the least bird is composed with
greater art than the best Kayak, and no man can

make a bird. Man is still more exquisitely framed

than all other animals. Who then has made him ?
He comes from his parents, and they come again
from their parents.
whence came But
the firstman ?
He may have grown out of the earth. But why do
men not grow out of the earth nowadays ? And from
whence do the earth,sea, sun, moon and stars pro-
ceed
? There must necessarily be someone who has
created everything,
who has always existed and can

have no end : he must be inconceivably

more ful
power-
and skilful than the wisest of men : he must also
198 SPIRIT AND MATTER

Bon asserts of primitive man is true, then it is equally

true of our latest scientific demonstrations.
To contraindicate the idea that these Eskimo

beliefs and demonstrations might have been a duum

resi-

from European or Asiatic sources,

it is only
to study their cults, even in the few
necessary pages
of Dennett, to perceive that while they harmonise,
generally speaking, with prehistoric American cults

and practices, they are entirely at variance with the

corresponding ideas of the Eastern world "

that is

to if these behefs came from the Eastern world

say,
to the Eskimos, then they came to all prehistoric
America from the same source. We know as
now,

ethnologists have demonstrated (see Brinton and

others), that the exact reverse is the case * that if

there was priority, it was for America that such

;

implanting must have back to interglacial times

gone
at least, for human remains and productions have been

discovered in various places in America dating back

to that remote epoch, notably near Trenton, N.J.,

where they had been found in abundance, deep down

in the glacial drift, which came down with the cap

ice-

from the north That this eastern priority did not

.

exist is also shown by the conceded fact that all

American languages have a polysynthetic type of

their while the languages of the Eastern world

own,

are not polysynthetic at all * America developed

and
grew independently of Asia, Africa, Europe or

Polynesia.
 CHAPTER XXVI

SPIRITUALISM THE SUBSTRATUM OF RELIGION, BUT NOT

IDENTICAL WITH IT

In the previouschapters I have endeavoured to show

that the phenomena of spirituaUsmare in a large
degree identical with those of religion ; and that
the sources and lines of communication in the case
of spiritualism are to a great extent identical with
those of religion ; not only of one religion, but of all.
Is spiritualism then identical with religion ? By no
means. Many leaders and teachers in spiritualism
have somewhat looselybut erroneously held this
opinion,to the great detriment both of itself and of
religion ; and whole bodies of Jews and Christians,
and of other religions, have started back from this
apparent danger so violentlyas to blindly fling
themselves into materialism, or rationalism as it is
euphemisticallycalled,to escape this apparently
obvious peril.
Because one of commerce
sort is carried over a

railway,does that bind all transport over the same

line to that class ? Because one great writer has
written books of inestimable value on religion, does
that make his books on history, or his novels,equally

books on religion ? Because Christ spoke parables,

are all His records and miracles to be considered
parables?
spiritualism
Because and religionalways,one may
say, overlapeach other,does that imply any identity ?
So physiology, anatomy and pathology overlap each
other "
so the historyof the Jews and the religion
of the Jews overlapeach other ; so astronomy and
chemistry,geologyand paleontology, life and death,
spiritand matter, overlapeach other,nay more, they
199
200 SPIRIT AND MATTER

measure each other,but does that imply that they

are identical ?
What then binding force which
is the holds ligion
re-

and together? It is the

spiritualism common

union and the unseen.

of the seen It is the ment
embodi-
*'
of the union with Stewart and Tait's Unseen
Universe/' It is what Romanes described as the
Spiritof the Universe, and Lamarck as that spirit,
independent of matter, which forms and rules all
things; and Sir John Herschel as volition manifest-
ing
upon the material,and Lord Kelvin as the per-
petual
miracle of life.
Spiritualism comes from the beyond, through the
subconscious department of the mind, and so does
religion.The revelations are from the beyond ; in
one case from departed spiritspossibly; from the
spirit of the universe possibly; from telepathy often
doubtless ; from some outside and undetermined
almost
intelligence certainlyin many cases ; and it
comes power with
to act on the mental and spiritual
within us, and upon our own physical and the
physicalaround us.
So does religion; but religion,while it comes in
the same garb,and from an outside source, comes also
from a divine source ; thatis the radical difference,
yet not always a difference. Still,
religiontells its
own story ; but as spiritualismfulfils its appointed
lot in teachingus to know by demonstration,and not
accept by a hazy and blind faith,
that we live on after
death, so, as it were, it comes to prepare the way for
religion, to make its pathsstraight ; it does this often
in uncouth and unsanctified ways, and is strong only
in the earnestness of purpose which, through every
difficulty, will iterate and reiterate the grand con- trolling
'' '' '* ''
teaching: It is I ; I am alive ;
*' *' *'
There is no spiritual death ; I am alive, gent,
intelli-
awake, broad-minded, and (in most cases),
happy." Now then, with this in hand, if it is de-
monstrated
(and it certainly has been) religion gets
its solid foothold and base, and, as Huxley said,
"
ridiculing the religion of humanity," we are no longer
''
listening, in this religion, to a wilderness of apes."
 SPIRITUALISM AND RELIGION 201

Under religionlies this basic

the foundation of
proofof a future life without
that, all religion
"
is an
ignisfatuus; spiritualism, rough and often mean ;
little and babbling; cheap and chattering ; with its
fishwives,curates, soldiers,cowboys, Indian girls,
so near to the heart of nature ; with its sailors who
often swear spooks like German
; merry kobolds ;
poltergeists ; friends, relatives,sisters,brothers,
wives, father and mother, baby, children,even born
still-
babes, grown-up sons and daughters,partners
in business, men we have known and admired, sweet-
hearts,
lovers,the kind and unkind, truthtellers and
'' ''
liars, all sorts and conditions of men decarnated,
come and tell us the truth,or else play with us, or
cheat us, or fancy for us, and, even so, prove the truth,
and they do all those multitudinous things in all
those multitudinous ways which, from our knowledge
of them, we should expect, if real,and the absence
of which would make them to us unknown and
negligible quantities.
''
Christ said of littlechildren, Suffer them to come

unto me, for of such is the kingdom of heaven." So

we may learn wisdom from babes.
Perfection does not belongto us here or hereafter,
but progression does. For example, there is not a
sane livingwho believes that by any amount
man of
acquirable knowledge he can ever become omniscient,
nor, by any amount of acquirablepower, omnipotent,
nor, by any increase of goodness,perfect ; and hence,
since we know by the mere contemplation of the
universe that there is something perfectin its in- telligenc
power, universality, vision and foresight,
we can all of us know that we may be shavingsfrom
that great spiritual sphere,but that we can never have
the rotundity, power, majesty and perfection of that
sphere. It isn't right,it isn't reasonable,that we
should.
We can be justas good, and wise,and great, and
useful,as we can be^ and that is precisely
what we

ought to try to be ; we know not what successive

spheres of lightwe may traverse through eternity,
nor even if actual eternityis for us ; but the war is
202 SPIRIT AND MATTER

won if we win survival after death,and all the rest we

can implicitly
trust to the power which made us and
preservedus.
And justas we the little, are, in type, comrades
of God the universal,so is spiritualism the little,
comrade the universal.
to religion
And with this,the soul misery,the starved-on-
husks, the cheated-with-vanities, of Romanes, will
pass away like a tale that is told,and life and mind
will have a new meaning, and a new destiny.
If it should turn out, if it has turned out, that the
materialistic, empirical,atheistical propaganda of
what has so often gone under the name of science, of
physical science, is all a mistake,when attemptingto
cross the impassablechasm, the unthinkable chasm,
which lies between mind and matter, between spirit
the worker and the material universe,the worked in
and on, and for which propaganda physicalscience
must transcend our physics, which is all it has or can
have, then we can see the terrificresult of such a mis- take
upon mankind, past,present and future.
If we are allied to spirit, universal and eternal ;
if we are here on probation, as Romanes says ; if we
are to stand still, advance or retrograde, as we make
use of the opportunities of this lifeof probation; and,
if we live after death, and there must make a fresh
start with our acquiredcapitalhere, continue on,
willy-nilly, and continue our advance there as we
have advanced here ; stand still, earthbound there,
as we have stood still,earthbound here ; or retro-
grade
there, or endeavour in speechlessagony to
catch up, to clingto something,as a drowning man
catches at straws, to save ourselves there, and in
pain, sorrow, remorse, darkness and degradation;
only in some degree and at some time helped,as may
be, by the purer spirits weeping tears of sorrow for
our misery,and whisperingwords of hope and encour- agement

amid the long blackness of despair, is it not

then a frightful mistake ?
It is indeed a frightful mistake ; and one may well
ask, how could such a mistake have occurred ? and
how could so many millions of mankind have fallen
 SPIRITUALISM AND RELIGION 203

into this error, and subjectedthemselves to this

delusion ?
The path of duty is not always easy, but the ward
re-

is as greatas it is inevitable.

"
Of all the words the language bears
Of splendouror of beauty,
Of faith to God or truth to man,
The noblest one is Duty.
It brings a zest to every joy,
A balm to every sorrow.
It lifts the weary heart to-day.
And nerves it for to-morrow."

But men are prone to seek the reward without the

toil ; and it cannot be done. Says the old hymn :
'*
Shall I be carried to the skies
On flow'rybeds of ease,
While others fought to win the prize
'"
And sailed through bloody seas ?

Men were very ready, nay, anxious, to learn of

some way by which the end of lifemight better become
the end of all thingsfor themselves,than that they
should have to bear the responsibility
of a fathomless,
perchance an unhappy, if well-deserved,future.
When men are drafted out from the ranks for execu-
tion,

it is better to draw a blank than a number ;

though they well know that it would have been better
stillto draw a promotion. But promotion must be
worked for ; desertion comes more easy, but only for
the moment.
And when physicalscience appeared before them
as a one-eyed and impassivegod, who spake as one
with authority,and promised eternal death and
''
silence, they turned with a jest Well, we'll be a "

long time dead," and thought that they could be

happy with that,but Romanes showed that they were
all miserable together,whether among the pursuits
of physics,the gatheringand scattering of wealth,
the dissipations and fashion,and indeed
of frivolity
beneath every coveringsham, which they flung over
their poverty and nakedness. I think he was right;
I have known many such myself,and they are a
204 SPIRIT AND MATTER

dissatisfied lot, one

and all, each seeking to diminish

his own misery by a propaganda to make others lieve

be-
''
the same thing, and come into the crowd,'*
which is ridiculous, and would be, if
even they were

convinced and sincere.

2o6 SPIRIT AND MATTER
''
pounded theory of innate principles/' as contrasted

with divinely implanted faculties.

''
As, for example,Locke says : God having fitted
men with faculties and means to discover,receive
and retain truths,accordingas they are employed.*'
*'
Again : How much of our knowledge depends
upon the rightuse of those powers nature hath be-
stowed
upon
us, and how little upon such innate
principles,''
etc.
'' *'
So of revelation he says,: is natural
Reason,"
revelation,v/herebythe eternal Father of Ught, and
Fountain of all knowledge,communicates to mankind
that portionof truth He has laid within the
which
reach of their natural faculties : revelation is natural
reason enlarged by a new set of discoveries com-
municated

by God immediately."
Our organs themselves, accordingto Locke, are
''
God-given. We cannot believe it impossible," he
'*

says, to God to make a creature with other organs,

and more ways to convey into the understandingthe
notice of corporeal things than these five,as they
are usually counted, which He has given to man,
etc."
"
Again : ''I judgeit not amiss,by this intimation
*^
(ofactive and passivepower), to direct our minds to
the consideration of God for the clearest
and spirits,
idea of active powers."
You will see these brief extracts,that
at once, from
Locke was not only a theist,but a believer in and
demonstrator of continuous revelation,and of God,
and spiritualism.How far astray then must
physicalscience,in teachingmaterialism,have gone,
to seek to impressLocke into its motley ranks !
Locke's philosophy,when properly understood,
was not at all directed against spiritualism,but on the
contrary was directly in its favour.
What he attacked so relentlessly was the Cartesian
theory of innate ideas,which, having been boldly
stated in the philosophyof Descartes,was afterwards
taken up and still more thoroughly elaborated by
Leibnitz. Both these men were among the greatest
mathematicians known to history,and there is no
 POPULAR ERROR 207
more materialistic science than that of pure
mathematics.
This theory of innate
posited,in the embryo
ideas
organism as a part of its equipment, certain em- bryonic

ideas which, later on, would expand and

culminate in many of the developedforms of ideas and
beliefs. It had, or was capableof having,a material-
istic
foundation,and, in fact,the physicaltheory of
heredity, which I will consider later on, in connection
with Haeckel, is practically one of innate ideas,with
a basis of physicalids or plasms, inherent in the
minutest bit of invisible livingprotoplasm,inherited
for millions of years, perhaps,through unnumbered
generations, to grow and mature as the livingform
grows and matures, and to be againtransmitted, by its
livingparticles, to the minutest bit of livingproto-
plasm,
for
in the offspring, uncounted generations yet
to come.

It was this
physicaltheory that Locke strove to
supplantby substituting direct spiritual contact and
revelation, with and from God and spirits.
Certain sects of Christians, and stilllargersects
of other religions, have clung to this theory of innate
ideas,which, indeed,came down from heathen times,
but, as a source of intuition or even of instinct, the
swing of the pendulum is nowtoward the Kantian view
''
that instinct, like this other,is the voice of God.*'
That man bringsa spiritual endowment is most
certain, and that his constitution itselfis permeated,
inbred or surrounded, with a subconsciousness and a
receptivity for acquiring spiritual food,is unquestion-
able
'' ''
this is the
"
faculty of Locke, or as Words-
worth
says :

""

Trailingclouds of glory do we come

From God, who is our home."

Butthey are clouds that we trail ; they are

faculties, capacities and habits,and forms ; each is
*' ''
after its kind," but these are not innate ideas,*'
but the soil in which acquiredideas
subconsciously
are and will be implanted,as a complement to the
conscious ideas which come from observation and
experience.
2o8 SPIRIT AND MATTER

Much has been

by me said
in the preceding
chapters concerning this inspirationor intuition ;
and, referring especially to the chapter dealingwith
the Patent System, it seems to me that we will be
able to understand very clearlywhat this intuition is,
"
which in Locke's system was to replace innate
ideas/'
It is for instance,that
incredible, the idea of the
sewing machine or telegraphshould have been innate
in all animal lifefrom time immemorial. If this were
so, there could indeed be no priorityor right in
invention ; nay all
possibilities
more, of the future
must be carried indefinitely along in complete form
from the pre-amoeba, and, worse still, uncounted
millions of valuable ideas which must perishfor ever
unfructified, for no one can contend that the human
race ever can exhaust all possible ideas. This again
contradicts the law of parsimony, which is,in fact,
the rule of common-sense.
Here, in an invention,we have an intuition ; but
this is not an idle dream ; it is
practically working
a

intuition,and a practically working intuition of an

invention is of the same order as a practically working
intuition of a solar system, or a universe, both reduced
to practice in the productionof developed forms of
crude matter. It, of course, can be said that solar
systems create themselves,but I have never heard
anyone say that a steam-engineor a phonograph
could create itself ; these kinds of little thingsre-
quire

a creator, and if the creation was an intuition

which no man ever before consciously had, or knew
of, or knew of the means to reduce it to practice,
before this particular man (forif there had been such
before him, then the invention was not patentable),
then it surelycame to him from without, and that
without was the source of that intuition at that time,
and, if of that intuition, then it is the source of other
kindred ideas and intuitions. So intuitions are not
dreams, but revelations.
I have heard many materialists (I use the term
in the sense in which Mr Huxley used it)talk about
Hume, but I have never heard one of them talk
 POPULAR ERROR 209
Hume himself. In Hume's reduction (he never

beheved it himself,by the way) the physicalworld

of Locke disappeared,because we could only under-
stand
matter by means of mind, on which concession
Berkeley assumed the individual mind or ness
conscious-
to be the sole factor ; but Hume found no more

warrant for individual mind than for individual

matter, and this
disappearedalso,leavingclouds
so

of unmeaning consciousness floatingabout in an

immaterial chaos, which by their contacts emitted
sparks,then split up again,and againreunited,as we
see clouds do in the sky. As Winston Churchill says
''
of two of his characters, the wires of their lives had
crossed,and since then had crossed many times again,
always with a spark.'' As Morell says, in his work on
'' " *'
the SpeculativePhilosophy of Europe : The
philosophyof Hume, as a whole, originatedand fell
with himself. A more partial and less daring
scepticism might, probably, have gained many
followers ; but it is the inevitable result of every
system, professinguniversal unbelief,to destroy
itself." As Sir James Mackintosh well says,
**
there can be no belief that there can be no
belief."
Auguste Comte is another materialistic philosopher
who is alwaysquoted at second-hand. I refer to him,
because it is said that there is one man who stillbe-
lieves
in him, and a good many of our ethical-culture
friends believe also that they think they believe in
him too. Comte
discipleof St Simon, the
was a

theistic French Socialist. But in buildinghis great

work on positivephilosophyhe abandoned the re-
ligious

basis of St Simon, and certainly constructed

a magnificent system, a sort of Aladdin's palace,but
it had no foundation and would not stand alone.
Later on, it is said,he fell in love with a married
woman whose untimelydeath caused him to revise his
atheism. But Comte had already left his great
philosophywith nothing in it higher than man, so
that he compelled to get his God out of
was this
human coterie,or else recant his whole lifework ; and
when recantation once begins,no follower has any
210 SPIRIT AND MATTER

confidence left as to where it may end. So Comte

''
dealt with rehgion, which/' says his
biographer,
*'
he conceived to be the complete harmony of human
existence,individual and collective, or the universal
unity of all existences in one great Being,whom he
calls Humanity/' The fallacy,as I have shown
before,in this work, hes in the fact that there can be
no such universal unity or community of all human
existences,in the absence of a common source or

parentage,and to find that you must go back, beyond,

and outside our presenthumanity. But even Comte
abandoned his own basis of universal unity in finding
all sorts of exceptionsin higher,isolated examples,
and these he made the subjects of worshipby various
homages and festivals, and reformed the calendar,
naming the months after these (on his theory)
pathognomonicfreaks.
We now come to John Stuart Mill,whose name

looms largely,from his logic and philosophy.It

would be impossible to trace his work here ; all I can
do is to show that in the fulness of his power, and
after all his labours,he was obligedto confess that his
artificialand laboured system broke down, and was
futile.
''
Starting with Hume's ultimation, there are
"

thoughts and feelings ; this radical basis alone

on
''
he built his constructive idealism." It was on the
phenomenon of memory and states of present and
past consciousness, that his whole theory broke down,
and he was brave enough to confess it. He says :
''We are here face to face with that final inexplica-
bilityat which, as Sir William Hamilton observes,
we inevitablyarrive when we reach ultimate facts ;
and, in general,one mode of statingit only appears
more incomprehensible than another, because the
whole of human language is accommodated to the

one, and is so incongruous with the other that it

cannot be expressedin any terms which do not deny
its truth. The real stumbling block is perhaps not
in any theory of the fact,but in the fact itself. The
true incomprehensibility perhaps is,that something
which has ceased, or is not yet in existence, can
 POPULAR ERROR 211

still be, in a present that a series of

manner, "

feelings the infinitely greater part of which is past

or future, can
be gathered as
it were,
into a
up,

single present conception, accompanied by a belief

in its reality."
 CHAPTER XXVIII

TYNDALL, HUXLEY, SPENCER, HAECKEL

In dealingwith John Tyndall as a sheet-anchor for

materiaUsm, I need only repeat his statement that
between mind and matter there is a chasm ally
intellectu-
impassable.
Scant comfort will the materialist obtain from
Huxley. I do refer to his
not popular lectures,but
to those writingsin which be was dealingwith in-
tellectua
forces equal to his own. For example,
''
Berkeley,he
when, discussing says : The honest and
rigorousfollowing up of the argument which leads us
to materialism inevitably carries us beyond it.'*
Huxley's misfortune was that he lived in the early
dawn of a new psychological age, and the data were
not in his possessionwhich his own positionsde-
manded.
He has always presentedto me the picture
of a man of great power, struggling toward the higher
light,but trammelled, bound down, and almost
strangledby physicaltheories which he could not
controvert, and was driven, againsthimself,to try
to accept, while still strivingfor the coming day,
which he felt must come, but which had not yet
arrived.
"
What noble words are these ! For anything
that may provedbe to the contrary, there may be
a real something which is the cause of all our im-
pressions
; that sensations,though not likenesses,
are symbols of that something ; and that the part of
that something which we call the nervous system is
an apparatus for supplyingus with a sort of algebra
of fact,based on these symbols. A brain may be the
machinery by which the material universe becomes
conscious of itself. But it is important to notice
212
214 SPIRIT AND MATTER

his last breath it becomes to each the same thingas

though he had never lived.
'*
And then the consciousness itself what is it "

during the time that it continues ? And what be- comes

of it when it ends ? We can only infer that it
is a specialised and individualised form of that Infinite
and Eternal
Energy which transcends both our know-
ledge
and our imagination; and that at death its
elements lapseinto the Infinite and Eternal energy
whence they were derived.'*
In view of the long series of works issued by
Herbert Spencer,each one of which had become an
anchor to hold him fast againstwinds and currents,
this is all the most ardent lover of truth could hope
for,from this author,and far more than one had any
rightto expect.
When examined, it concedes the insufficiency of
any materialistic or agnosticphilosophybased on his
earlier writings, and enables us to correct this last
statement by the concessions he makes in statingit.
''
He says that our consciousness is specialised and
'*
individualised ; now, if derived from that Infinite
and Eternal
Energy, must not that Infinite and
Eternal Energy also be individualised and specialised ?
If they are of the same order (and,being the same in
derivation, they must be of the same order)they must
both be inevitably so.
,
"

He infers that, at death, the elements of this

*' "
specialised and individualised consciousness of
ours will lapse into the source from which it was
derived.
But there is
ground for such inference,if our
no

consciousness is specialised and individualised; the

most that can be said is that this is a questionto be
settled by evidence. Spiritualists claim that they
have this evidence ; all religionof every type and land
and age claims this fact also ; our own ness,
conscious-
Spencer says, finds
as such an oppositeending
'*
strange and repugnant." Now what argument can

be adduced in its favour ? If these individualities

are pushed escape, to become
out or specialised,
to
learn and to suffer as they become individualised,
what
 OTHER EARLIER WRITERS 215
would begainedby having them againabsorbed into,
or fall into,the same source from which they were rived
de-
? Would they add anythingto the knowledge,
power or happiness of that great source ? What is
all our trials, and pain, and grief, and care, and worri-
ment for,in such a case ? We come back battered,
broken and empty-handed, and no one, no origin, no

source, nothing,is or can be bettered or benefited by

this incessant push and pull. And what pushes,and
what pulls? Spencer here has been betrayed by a
false analogywith the physical phenomena of gravita-
tion,
and his hypothesiswas only tenable in those
pre-scientific days when philosopherstaught that
*'
Nature abhors a vacuum.'* We know better now.

Says Tennyson :

"
That each, who seems a separate whole,
Should his rounds, and
move fusing all
The skirts of self again, should fall
Remerging in the general soul,
**
Is faith as vague, as all unsweet;
Eternal form shall still divide
The eternal soul from all beside ;
And I shall know him, when we meet ;

"
And we shall sit at endless feast
Enjoying each the other's good.
What vaster dream can hit the mood
Of love on earth ? "

Some of the men I have named were known as

idealists,
some semi-materialists, some materialists,
and some alternately one or the other,but the type
was the same in all. Just as I showed you that
credulity and incredulity were different presentations
of the selfsame unscientific superstition, so structive
con-
'' '*
idealism and crass materialism are the
same. Whether materialism be conceived of as

extended into idealism,or the reverse, providedthey

are conceived of as automatic,self-derived and self-
operative, they are alike ; they are all dealt with by the
same arguments, and arrive at the same result. The
essence of these two is the same, and they depend
upon empiricismfor their logic,just as spiritualism
depends upon transcendentalism for its basis.
 2i6 SPIRIT AND MATTER

Hence these two sharply differentiated and tradictory

con-
theses are known as the empiricalon the
side,and the transcendental on the other. The
one

empiricalfinds its home and faith in the contempla-

tion
and rationale of what we see about us, handled
by syllogisms, and walled in by agnosticism; on the
contrary,the transcendental, as its etymologyimplies,
"
climbs beyond," and finding that empiricismleaves
unconsidered not only everythingoutside its micro-
scopic
field, but even the ground which it occupies, it
finds these fundamental questions forced upon it,
and having mind, soul,intellect and life in its pos-session,
uses these tools in the only way possible, and
to the whole extent available and sure, and hence finds
the of
mind, soul,intellect and life,
source in the only
conceivable source of mind, soul,intellect and life ;
and thence deductively traces down the line by rigid
experiment, but with a field Hmited only by the
universe eternity, and
and with sources and origins
only compatiblewith the universal, and with intelli-
" gence kindred with our own. The one works in a
dark room with a rushlight,
open the other in the
fields with sunlight; onethe a nebula and a finds
stone wall,the other infinite spirit
and an eternal God.
As Mrs Browning said,amid the tragedy of life and
death,
"
I smiled to think God's greatness flowed around our incompleteness,
Round our His
restlessness. rest."

To quote from Murdock, cited in Webster's

''
Dictionary, Transcendentalism claims to have a

true knowledge of all thingsmaterial and immaterial,

human and divine,so far as the mind is capable of
knowing them. And in this sense the word scendentali
tran-
is now most used.''
You will that
majesticdemands
see such
require
that the spiritualismof the universe shall be cognisable,
that God is a spirit,that the psychism of the universe
is akin to and interpretable by our own psychism,and
that all religionis,in its essence, the revelation from
God and the reception by man of divine truth.
Beyond all questionevery one of these greattruths
 OTHER EARLIER WRITERS 217
has been scientifically worked out and demonstrated.
It is not for those who have never tried it to deny it ;
it is not for those whose pet superstition is incredulity
to deny it ; it is not for physicalscience,which has
erected a nettingof transparent a priori,
lawn-tennis
to sit behind it and nurse its misery there are too "

many looking on, but it is,for all this ilk,to get

down to work, and we well know what happens to
every honest investigator who does actually get down
to work, and keep working.
There are
many other names beside those I have
referred to, which will come to you, but the men I
have mentioned are types of all the various classes,and
are those who stand in the populareye, for materialism
in all its various garbs. But there is yet one who
must be considered,because he is the most recent, and
his work is so materialistic and at the same time so
''
popular,that when all else fails,"
as the quack
medical advertisements run, the scepticsconsult
''
^^
Haeckel, and his
particularly Riddle of the verse.*'
Uni-

For the skilled student this is a

good book to read,
because the author unconsciouslyuncovers himself,
shows his partialities and shortcomingsso luminously
that one can see precisely how the reader is sought
to be misled,and how, if the facts were correctly and
scientifically stated,the conclusions would be precisely
the opposite.
After what I have alreadysaid in these chapters,
you will all agree that to properly handle these
subjects, and for
especially popularreading,a writer jc^j^^m^
must be thoroughly capableand excellently equipped.^,^ ^
.

You will recollect that even Romanes was obligedto ^^"/^'^*^

revise his whole work on these subjects, and take J a'
^^^ ^*^ff
oppositeground, as soon as he had gone deeplyinto
biology,psychology and anthropology,and that he /^/v^
confessed that he would have learned the truth long
''
before if he had not been too deeply immersed in
"

merely physical research !

Now, have we so capablea man, in all the various
sciences that the occasion requires, in Ernest Haeckel,
''
as a teacher ? He says in his preface, My own
 2i8 SPIRIT AND MATTER

command of the various branches of science is uneven

and defective,
so that I can attempt no more than to
sketch the generalplan of such
a world-picture, and
point outthe pervadingunity of its parts,however
imperfectbe the execution.** Haeckel's latest book
is more defective even than his earlier ones, but the
essential ideas are the same. The factors employed
are heredityand environment,neither of which
has
he correctlystated, as understood in biology. To
illustrate this,I will quote the following
: "
''
By these
empiricalfacts of conception,moreover, the further
fact of extreme importanceis established, that every
man, like every other animal, has a beginningof
existence ; the completecopulation of the two sexual
cell-nuclei marks the precise moment when not only
the body, but also the soul of the new stem-cell makes
its appearance. This fact suffices of itself to destroy
the myth of the immortalityof the soul,to which we
shall return later on. It suffices,
too, for the destruc-
tion
of the stillprevalentsuperstition that man owes
his personalexistence to the favour of God."
His argument, you will see, falls of itself,
for there
are probably millions of livingbeingsnever born of
sexual union at for
all, every one that is so born. worms
Silk-
are now always bred from virginmothers, and
for one case of
amphimixis(sexualgeneration) there
are uncounted millions of karyokinesis(asexual
generation), a nd, many times,the same animal re-

ft produces indifferently by one mode or the other.

lA*r^^ The ''
souls must
**
here be in a mixed-up state surely.
But his whole description of sexual generation is false.
'* **
There is no fusion as he
says there is ; he says
nothing of the centrosomes, those commanding
generalswho marshal their chromatin into platoons
from a distance,march them about like soldiers,
and
order one-half to break to the rear and march off the
field ; nothing of the polar bodies ; nothing of the
chromosomes ; nothing of the independent psychic
life and antics of the zoogonidia, the zoospores, living
animals far below the smallest cells,
and the offcast
of vegetablegrowths as low as seaweeds. Where was
*' '*
copulation there ? In fact,he ignores,
perverts
 OTHER EARLIER WRITERS
219

and conceals, all the essential keynote facts which

we should expect from the a priori of a man who has

been writing, as he for a generation with an

says,

imperfect and defective command of the various

branches of science of which he claims to treat.

Charles Darwin, unfortunately, for he fully stood

under-

'' '*
the truth, used environment without

qualification at times, and this has become a leth

shibbo-

with the half-educated. Environment, or roundings,

sur-

it has of itself to modify

as means, no power

anything. A man walking along a road comes to a

long, steep hill. The hill does nothing if he sits

;

down there it is just as though there were no hill

;
but

if he undertakes to climb the hill, then the exertion

he puts forth modifies the but it was not the

man,

environment which modified him. It is the coming,

over-

or failure to overcome,
which acts, and that

is inside the is part of his endowment or ment,

acquire-
man,

is a part of the man

himself environment is
;

nothing in itself the man is everything.

;
 CHAPTER XXIX

HEREDITY

So of heredity. If the earUest forms of animal or

vegetablelife were secretlyendowed with the genius
of a Shakespeare,or Newton, or Copernicus, or other
almost superhuman men, then I could understand how
some subconscious memory, reachingon from genera-
tion
to generation, for millions of years, might leave
us some heredity,amounting to perhaps the intelli-
gence
of zoospores or bacteria. But how a man like
Lord Kelvin should have obtained abilityand his
knowledge,by a survival of memory from an amoeba,
or from an invertebrate of the Devonian, or a verte-
brate
of the is incredible
Triassic, to me.

Even if true, Haeckel and his friends would have

to explainwhere these suddenly endowed ancestors
obtained all their knowledge, which they certainly
never needed and never used, and whether, if such
sudden endowments were flyingabout, one of these
might not better have struck Lord Kelvin in the nine-
teenth
century, than a tadpolein the year one. And
how James Watt and Eli Whitney and Elias Howe
could have gotten the steam-engine,the cotton gin,
and thesewing machine from a polyp a quarter of an
inch long,ten million years ago, and which never got
its head above sea water, except by accident,is also
incredible to me.
I believe in heredity; as I have alreadysaid,I
believe with Wordsworth, that,

"
Trailingclouds of glory do we come

From God, who is om: home."

But HaeckeFs scheme heredity(which Weis-

of
mann, in far more and more
scientific, dainty,but only
220
222 SPIRIT AND MATTER
''
Now this unityof feeling is a thingby itself,
in that
there came into it all the parts and experiencesof the
organism. It it thus like an agent which under-
stands
all that is goingon, only that in the latter case
every difference in the organism has its place as an
difference
explicit in the mind of the agent, whereas
in the case with which we have to do the resultant
state of feelingis an apparentlyhomogeneous unity,
for which each change in the body has its value,but in
which each loses its character as a separate thing.
The unity of feeling has the additional advantage of
being a fact,whereas the agent is not a fact."
The action is psychical, of course, corresponding
to the vis medicatrix naturcB of the livingorganism.
It is not physical, hence must be spiritual.
It belongsto the same category as instinct, which
Von Hartmann characterises as clairvoyance from the
unconscious,and Kant as the voice of God.
Professor Shaler,in his" Interpretation of Nature,'*
deals with this questionof heredityvery fully. The
physicalorganisation of man can in no wise account
for his advancement. The author says: "The
success of
has been man due, not to any very peculiar
accomplishmentof an organickind,for in his frame
he is much like his kindred,the anthropoids. It has
been won by an entire change in the limitations of his
psychic development. When we come to man, we

appear to find the old bondage of the mind body

to the

swept away ; and the intellectual parts developwith

extraordinaryrapidity,while the frame remains
essentially
unchanged."
This alone would lead us to deal most cautiously
"
with any charge that these factors, the dominant
characteristic of man," could be a physicalsurvival
from lower organs or organismswhich are devoid of
"
this dominant characteristic,which enables us to
class man as an entirely
new kind of animal."
Professor Shaler emphasisesthe necessity of this
caution,and shows that even materiaHstic naturalists
"
have yieldedtheir consent. He says : Gradually
it has been forced upon them that they too have to
assume the intangible if they would take any firm
 HEREDITY 223

the series of facts with which they

steps in explaining
have to largepart of this caution is due to
deal. A
our study of organicphenomena, especially in that
part of the biologicfield where the investigator has
to consider the marvellous truths of inheritance. In
face of the facts of descent, the most pragmatic
naturalist is sure to learn some caution in his criticism
of philosophers and theologians.**
Referring to the theory of pangenesis, which
Darwin offered tentativelyonly. Professor Shaler
"

says : Admirable as is the hypothesisof pangenesis

when considered merely as a daring feat of the
scientific imagination,it is evident that it utterly
fails to satisfy the first condition of a theory,namely,
that it shall bring a portionof the unknown within
the limits of the understanding. It does not in the
least extend or simplify our conception, but leaves us
in the densest fog of speculation.
''
The way in which the generational transmission
is affected not only goes quite beyond our field of
knowledge but appears also to transcend the limits
of the scientific imagination.*'
The onlyconclusion, he says, at least at the present
time, is that matter even in its simpler states of
organisation in the atom, or molecule,may contain a
practically infinite body of latent powers, as tradistinguished
con-

from latent physical properties.

This is in substantial accord with the views of Sir
John Herschel,that mind is the key that unlocks the
vis-viva, not the vis viva itself, but the hair-trigger
which by the lightest touch explodesa mine.
Professor James, in his ''Varieties of Religious
''
Experience,** says : The subconscious selfis now-
adays

a well-accredited psychological entity; and I

believe that in it we have exactlythe mediatingterm
required. Apart from all religiousconsiderations,
there is actuallyand literally more life in our total
soul than we are at any time aware of. The ploration
ex-
of the
transmarginalfield has hardly yet
been seriously undertaken, but what Mr Myers said
in 1892 in his essay on the Subliminal Consciousness
is as true as when it was firstwritten. '
Each of us
224 SPIRIT AND MATTER

is in realityan
abiding psychicalentity far more
extensive than he knows an individuality
"
which
can never express itself completely through any
corporealmanifestation. The Self manifests through
the organism ; but there is always some part of the
self unmanifested ; and always, as it seems, some
power of organicexpression in abeyance or reserve/
*'
In it many of the performancesof geniusseem
also to have their origin; and, in our study of con-
version,
of mysticalexperiences, and of prayer, we
have seen how strikinga part invasions from this
regionplay in the individual life/'
Again: "God is the natural appellation, for us
Christians at least,for the supreme reality,so I will
call this higher part of the Universe by the name of
God. We and God
have business with each other ;
and in opening ourselves to His influence our deepest
destinyis fulfilled.''
Says Sir Oliver
Lodge, in his Presidential Address
before the Societyfor PsychicalResearch in 1902 :
'*
To tell the truth, I do not myself hold that the
whole of any one of us is incarnated in these terrestrial
bodies ; certainly not in childhood ; more, but not
perhaps so very much more, in adult life. What is
manifested in this body is,I venture to think likely,
only a portion,an individualised, a definite portion,
of a much largerwhole. What the rest of me may be
doing,for these few years while I am here, I do not
know ; perhaps it is asleep; but probably it is not
so entirely asleepwith men of genius; nor, perhaps,
is it all completelyinactive with the people called
* "
mediums.'
Says Professor Barrett,in his Presidential Address
in 1904, '*Iftelepathy be indisputable,
if ourcreaturely
minds can, without voice or sensation,impress each
thus to have revealed
other,the Infinite mind is likely
itself in all ages to responsivehuman hearts. Some
may have the spiritual ear, the open vision,but to
all of us there comes the echo of that larger
at times
Life which is slowlyexpressingitself in humanity as
the ages graduallyunfold. In fact,the teachingof
science has ever been that we are not isolated in,or
 HEREDITY 225

from, the great Cosmos ; the Hght of suns and stars

reaches us, the mysteriousforce of gravitationbinds
the whole material universe into an organicwhole,
the minutest molecule and the most distant orb are
bathed in one and the self-same medium. But
surelybeyond and above all these material links is
the solidarityof Mind."
Says Nikola Tesla, the electrical discoverer,
in
"
one of his lectures : Nature has stored up in the
universe infinite energy. We are whirling . . .

through space with an inconceivable speed,all around

us everythingis moving, everywhere is energy. . . .

Nature's immeasurable, all-pervading energy, which

ever and anon changing and moving, like a soul
animates the inert universe. Far beyond the . . .

limit of perceptionof our senses the spirit still can

guide us.''
''
Says Prof. William H. Thomson, in his Material-ism
"
and Modern Physiologyof the Nervous System :
''
Now with the fact obstinately remainingthat mind
is a great reality, Huxley himself often maintaining
that it is the first of all realities, what is there incon-
ceivable
about its separate existence, merely because
we are unacquainted,at present, with the conditions
of such a separate existence ? On account of that
deficiency,
must suspend further inferences,
we and
return to matter and force,which alreadywe have
been told can give no intimation of what mind is
although we know that there must be such a thing
"
as mind ?
'*
Says Professor Conn : At the present time we

know of no simpleprotoplasm capableof living

such
activities apart from machinery,and the problem of
explaininglife even in the simplestform known,
remains the problem of explaininga machine. . . .

We ai'e apparently as far from the real goal of a

natural explanationof life as we were before the dis-
covery
of protoplasm."
''
In Bateson's Problems of Heredity,"republished
from the originalEnglish edition by the sonian
Smith-
Institution,in 1902, this careful writer,Fellow
*'
of the Royal Society, says : While in other branches
226 SPIRIT AND MATTER

of physiology such great progress has of late been

made, our knowledge of heredityhas increased but
little. Let us recognisefrom the outset that as to the
essential nature of the phenomena of hereditywe
stillknow absolutelynothing. We have no glimmer-
ing
of an idea as to what constitutes the essential
process by which
the likeness of the parent is trans-
mitted
to the offspring. Of the nature of the ...

physicalbasis of hereditywe have no conceptionat

all. No one has
suggestion,workingyet any
hypothesis, or mental picturethat has thus far helped
in the sUghtestdegreeto penetrate beyond what we
see. The process is as utterlymysteriousto us as a
flash of lightning is to a savage. We do not know
what is the essential agent in the transmission of
parentalcharacters,not even whether it is a material
agent or not.''
Among the examples cited by Bateson are two
speciesof pea, permanent and longestablished. One
is a tall stem, the other a dwarf. When these are

either
cross-bred, the
progeny one
reap-
pears or the other
unchanged, or new offspring i else the
s much
taller than the taller of the two parents. I wish that
I could reproduce more of this evidence. But I can
do better, for I can quote from Haeckel what his own
opinionof,and reliance on, Romanes was, and then
show you what befell Romanes when he did what
Haeckel confesses that he himself did not do, and
how Haeckel is put to shame by his chosen exemplar.
Says Haeckel : ''To George Romanes we owe the
further developmentof Darwin's psychology,and its
specialapplication to the different sections of psychic
activity. Unfortunately, his premature decease
prevented the completion of the great work which
was to reconstruct every section of comparative chology
psy-
on the lines of monistic evolution. The
two volumes of this work which were completed are
among the most valuable
productionsof psychological
literature. The distinguished
. psychologist
. . gives
a convincingproof that the psychologicalbarrier
between man and the brute has been overcome. . .
I
recommend those of my readers who are interested
 HEREDITY 227
in these momentous questionsof psychologyto study
the profound work of Romanes. I am completely
at one with him and Darwin in almost all their views
and convictions. Wherever an apparent discrepancy
is found between those two authors and my earlier
productions, it is either a case of imperfectexpression
on my part or an unimportant difference in tion
applica-
ofprinciple.**
''
Now, when Haeckel had finished his Riddle of
the Universe/*Romanes alreadydead, regrettingwas

with tears that his work was only half finished ; but
the last work of Romanes, in completion of his
psychology, had not yet appeared, having been
publishedposthumously. Had Haeckel seen these
small thin volumes of Romanes, the fruit of his
deeper studies and investigations, he would either
have revised his own eulogy of Romanes, or else the
text of his own Riddle. For Haeckel has left us a

riddle which Romanes has fullyanswered, but not as

Haeckel expected and you " will not find the answer
in Haeckel at all,because Haeckel had ceased to
study before Romanes had actuallybegun. Says
''
Romanes : Physicalcausation cannot be made to
'*
supply its own explanations.'* When I wrote the
precedingtreatise [in1878],I did not sufficiently preciate
ap-
the immense importance of human nature,
as distinguished from physicalnature, in any enquiry
touching Theism. But since then, I have seriously
studied anthropology(including the science of com-
parative

religions), psychology and metaphysics,

with the result of clearlyseeingthat human nature
is the most important part of nature as a whole
whereby to investigate the theoryof Theism. This
I ought to have anticipatedon merely a priori
grounds, and no doubt should have perceived,had
I not been too much immersed in merely physical
research.
*'
I now perceivetwo well-nighfatal oversights
which I then committed. The first was undue fidence
con-

in merely syllogistic
conclusions,even when
derived from sound premises,in regionsof such high
abstraction. The second was, in not being suffi-
228 SPIRIT AND MATTER

cientlycareful in examining the foundations of my

criticism,
that is,the vaHdity of its premises.
"
In that treatise I havesince come to see that I
was wrong touching what I constituted the basal
argument for my negative conclusion. Therefore
I now feel it obligatoryon me publishthe follow-
to ing
results of my maturer thought, from the same
'
standpointof pure reason.'
Here is the summary of a few of the results :
1. Disbelief is easier than belief, if in accordance
with environment or custom, and is usually due to
indolence,and is
thing to be proud of. To
never a

believe requiresa spiritual use of the imagination,

and very few unbelievers have any justification,
either intellectual or spiritual, for their own belief.
un-

2 .
Probation is the
onlyrational explanationof life .

3. Agnosticsmust investigate religion, even if it

is to be considered only as intuitional.
4. In considering the hypothesisof design,it can
be verified by the organ of immediate intuition, which
is supplementaryto the rational.
5. The attitude of scientificmen towards spiritual-
ism,
especially with such phenomena as those of mes- merism
"
to warn them, shows that scientificmen are

quiteas dogmatic as the straitest sect of theologians.

These men all professedto be agnosticsat the very
time when thus so egregiously violating their philo-
sophy
by their conduct.''
6. If choice has to be made between mysticism
''
and agnosticism, the mystic might claim higher
authorityfor his direct intuitions."
7. It is on all sides worth considering(blatant
ignoranceor base vulgarityalone excepted) that the
revolution effected by Christianity in human life is
immeasurable and unparalleled by any other move-
ment

in history.
8. The theory of causation lands us in mystery ;
volition is the only known cause.
'*

9. The common hypothesison which all dis- putes

between Science and Religionhave arisen,is
highly dubious." He says that theologianshave
 230 SPIRIT AND MATTER

offspring, with location, form and obvious design,

from a prenatal mental shock to the mother,

are entirely inexplicable on any physical theory.

There is no possible physiological connection from

mother to foetus which could locate, at a specific place,

and in directive relation, upon an unborn child, the

indelible imprint, with the hair, shape, jaws, colour,

legs, tail, etc., of great dog, grasping at the throat,

ij\j/^ a

"
"^
and sprawling down the chest, to correspond with the

J^ similar attack of a real dog, of like breed, and also of

"J
"*'

great size and fury, which had attacked and attempted

to throttle the mother, until dragged off, a
few months

before the birth of the child, then in foetal life. I

have had such a case

in practice, in a long
my woman

and so marked from birth, and with the

grown-up,

history which I have narrated from the mother. deed,

In-

medical history is full of such instances, and of

still more wonderful, and which can only have

many a

psychical interpretation. I refer also to the cases

mentioned by Professor Oliver Wendell Holmes, an

eminent medical authority, in the Epistolary Chapter

(xvi.) of his well-known ''
Elsie Venner.'*
 CHAPTER XXX

SPIRITUALISM PURSUES THE METHODS OF SCIENCE "

SIR WILLIAM CROOKES' PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS

BEFORE THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION

The late Professor De Morgan, many years Professor

of Mathematics, and afterwards Dean of University
College,London, a Cambridge graduate,where he
took his degree as fourth wrangler,who studied for
the bar,and was a voluminous writer on mathematics,
logicand biography ; who was for eighteenyears
secretaryto the Royal Astronomical Society, and was
a strong and influential advocate for decimal coinage,
a man of world-wide celebrity as a leader of scientific
''
thought, wrote, in 1863, in the prefaceto From
Matter to Spirit," a work of his wife,as follows : "

''
I am perfectlyconvinced that I have both
seen and heard in a manner which should make
unbelief impossible,things called spiritual, which
cannot be taken by a rational being to be capable
of explanationby imposture,coincidence or mistake.
So far I feel the ground firm under me. But when it
comes to what is the cause of these phenomena, I find
I cannot adopt any explanationwhich has yet been
suggested. If I were bound to choose among things
which I can conceive,I should say that there is some
combination of will,intellect and physicalpower,
which is not that of any of the human beingspresent.
it
But, thinking very likely that the universe may
contain a few agencies say half-a-million " about "

which no man knows anything,I cannot but suspect

that a small proportionof these agencies say five "

thousand may be severally

"

competent to the pro- duction

of all the phenomena, or may be quiteup to
the task among them. The physicalexplanations
231
232 SPIRIT AND MATTER

which I have miserablyinsufficient,

seen are easy, but
hypothesisis sufficient but ponderously
the spiritual
difficult. The spiritualists,
. .
beyond a doubt, are
.

in the track that has led to all advancement in

physicalscience : their opponents are the tives
representa-
of those who againstprogress.have striven . . .

I have said that the deluded spirit-rappers are on the

righttrack : they have the spirit and method of the
grand time when those paths were cut through the
uncleared forest in which it is now the dailyroutine
to walk. What was that spirit ? It was the spirit
of universal examination, wholly unchecked by fear
of beingdetected in the investigation of nonsense. . . .

Again, the spiritualists have taken the method of

the old time. The spiritualist
. appeals to evi-
. .
dence
: he may have enough or he may not ; but he
relies on what he has seen and heard. When he
assumes that there is a world of it is no
spirits, more

than all nations and all ages have assumed, and many
on allegedrecords of actual communication, which all
who think him a fool ought to laugh at. If he should
take the concurrent of
feeling mankind as presumption
in favour of such a world "
a thing which may be
known " he is on more reasonable
ground the than
opponent, who draws its impossibilitya thingwhich "

cannot be known " out of the minds of a very small

minority.*'
''
Again he says, The rappingspirits, their views,
should they be reallyhuman impostures,are very,
very singular. In spiteof the inconsistencies, the
eccentricities, and the puerilities which some of them
have exhibited,there is a uniform vein of description
running through their accounts which, supposing it
to be laid down by a combination of impostors,is
more than remarkable, even marvellous. The agree-
ment
is one part of the wonder, it being remembered
that the mediums are scattered through the world ;
but other and greater part of it is that the im-
the postors,
if impostorsthey be,have combined to oppose
all the current ideas of a future state, in order to gain
belief in the genuinenessof their pretensions.''
Modern has
spiritualism never ceased to advance,
 SPIRITUALISM PURSUES SCIENCE 233
in spiteof a persecutionas rigorousand generalas
many of those physical persecutionsof old, for
opinion'ssake, which depopulated provinces,and
slaughteredmillions.
And with precisely the same effect, for the fires of
persecutionhave brought hosts of new investigators,
as persecution of the truth always does. Significant
facts are appearing in every direction, which prove
that a great movement infavourof spiritualism, among
the learned, the trained,and the men of science,is
now under way with an irresistible and constantly
increasingmomentum. There is hardly a great
institution of learningin Europe or America which
does not number among its professors and teachers
more than one, and often many, who study, teach
and demonstrate the principles and teachingsof this
philosophy. Books by eminent men of science on
this subjectare constantly appearing,and the correct
scientific principles, which regulate the investigations,
are everywherebeingrigidly applied, and with telling
effect.
So long ago as 1831 the medical section of the
French Royal Academy of Sciences took up these
questions,as related to the proximate and remote
phenomena of so-called animal magnetism, and the
unanimous report as publishedof the eminent experi- menters
was to establish the truth of the phenomena
of clairvoyance, internal prevision,and of many
psychological facts, utterly at variance with the
hypothesis of Dr Carpenter,or of his school.
The Dialectical Societyof London, in 1872,fully
established all these and many other facts, ively
conclus-
demonstratingthe existence of an extra-human
intelligence, capableof actingon physicalbodies to
produce physicalresults. Concerning this body of
investigators, one of its most eminent members,
Alfred R. Wallace, the contemporary with Darwin,
in his work on evolution, says :
''
Of this committee, consistingof thirty-three
actingmembers, only eightwere, at the commence- ment,

believers in the reality of the phenomena, while

not more than four accepted the spiritual theory.
234 SPIRIT AND MATTER

During the course of the inquiry(which extended

over two years),at least twelve of the complete
scepticsbecame convinced of the realityof many
of the psychicalphenomena through attendingthe
experimentalsubcommittees, and almost wholly by
meansof themediumshipof members of the committee.
At least three members who were previouslysceptics
pursued their investigations outside the committee
meetings,and in consequence have become thorough
spiritualists. My own observation,as a member of
the committee and of the largestand most active
subcommittee,enables me to state that the degreeof
conviction produced in the minds of the various
members was, allowing for marked differences of
character, approximately proportionate to the
amount of time and care bestowed on the investiga-
tion.
This fact,which is what occurs in all investiga-
tions
into these phenomena, is a characteristic result
of the examination into any natural phenomena.
The examination into an imposture or delusion has
invariablyexactlyoppositeresults ; those who have
slender experiencebeing deceived,while those who
perseveringly continue the inquiry inevitablyfind
out the source of the deceptionor delusion.''
The generalcommittee, in presenting its published
''
report, referred to the high character and great
intelligence of many of the witnesses to the more
extraordinary facts,the extent to which their testi- mony
is supportedby the reportsof the subcommittee
and absence of any proofof impostureor delusion as
regards a large portion of the phenomena ; and
further,having regard to the exceptionalcharacter
of the phenomena, a largenumber of persons in every
grade of societyand over the whole civilised world
who are more or less influenced by a belief in their
supernaturalorigin, and to the fact that no philoso-
phical
explanationof them has yet been arrived at,
deem it incumbent them
uponto state their con-
viction

that the subjectis worthy of more serious

attention and careful investigationthan it has
hitherto received.''
Ten years afterwards,
1882, was established our
 SPIRITUALISM PURSUES SCIENCE 235

great London Societyfor PsychicalResearch, which

now numbers nearlyof quitetwelve hundred living
members, among whom are included many dignitaries
of the church, many men eminent in science through-
out
the world,andmany men and women of mark and
rank, and the influence of the societyhas extended
so as to receive world-wide recognition.It is to-day
one of the great intellectual and scientificforces of the
age. Its
publicationsand proceedings include many
volumes, its monthly journalgoes to every part of
the world, and its roll of officers and members it
would be impossibleto duplicateanywhere, in their
importance and ability.It has done, and is doing,
a great work for humanity and for the true advance-
ment
of science.
To show the vast change in scientific sentiment
duringthe last quarter of a century, concerningthese
questions,it is only necessary to narrate the following
record of facts.
1871-1872Professor William Crookes, then a
In
Fellow of the Royal Society, sent two papers on the
subjectof psychicforce and allied phenomena to that
institution for readingand publication.These papers
were both thrown out by the Council of the Society,
and the papers, by a unanimous vote, it was stated,
were returned to the author.
At this time Professor Crookes was alreadyeminent
in science : he had been editor of The
Chemical
the
News since 1859, when it was founded ; was editor
of The QuarterlyJournal of Science ; the discoverer
of the metal thallium
high authorityon disen-
; a

fection for diseases of cattle, in which the sanitary use

of carbolic acid was first popularised ; a well-known

scientific writer on photography ; the discoverer of
the now universally employed sodium amalgamation
process in gold and silver metallurgy; and an vestigato
in-
and experimentalist of high repute in
opticsand polarisedlight; the practical introducer
of spectroscopic analysisinto England ; the con- structor

of the spectrum microscope, and the polarisa-

tion
photometer; a practical worker in astronomy
for twelve months at the Radcliffe Observatory,
236 SPIRIT AND MATTER

Oxford, in planet-hunting, transit-taking,and

celestial photography ; whose lunar photographs,
for years, were the best extant, and who was honoured
by the Royal Societyitself by a money grant to carry
on his work ; who was one of the British Govern-
ment's
EclipseExpedition to Oran ; and whose ventions
in-
and discoveries in the intricate phenomena
of in vacua
electric-lighting made the
X-rays possible,
'* "
and are known wherever Crookes-tubes are known,
and in radiant energy wherever science is recog-
nised.

But, in enteringupon spiritualism, the ground of

or psychicforce,he put beyond the
at once himself
pale,and was not only ignominiouslyrejected, but
''
was scourgedand humiliated,and made to point a
moral and adorn a tale,"by Dr Carpenterand others,
who boastfullyproclaimed his rejectionin their
publiclectures, while The QuarterlyReview took up
and carried on the attack in what Professor Crookes
''
calls the
spiteful, bad old style which formerly
characterised this periodical."
And Dr Huggins, the eminent astronomer, fell
under the same ban, because he certified as a witness
to some of the phenomena, and he was indirectly
stigmatisedas a brewer, a scientific amateur, one of
those who had only attached himself to astronomy,
and was treated,in fact,just as all advocates for a
scientific investigation of this subject have been
treated by the bigoted pseudo-physicists and their
credulous following in the past.
But, undeterred by hostile criticism, the experi-
ments
of Professor Crookes went on, and in The
QuarterlyJournal of Science forJanuary 1874 he
summarised and describedt the phenomena which he
had proven, under the followingclasses :
"

1. The movement of heavy bodies with contact

but without mechanical exertion.
2. The phenomena of percussiveand other allied
sounds.
3. The alteration of weight of bodies.
4. Movements of heavy substances when at a

distance from the medium.

238 SPIRIT AND MATTER

that certain phenomena new to science had assuredly

occurred,and were attested by my own sober senses,
and, better still, by automatic record. I think ...

I see a little farther now. I have glimpsesof some-

thing

like
coherence among the strange elusive
phenomena ; of something like continuitybetween
those unexplained forces and laws alreadyknown.
*'
This advance is largelydue to the labours of
another association of which also this year the
I have
honour to be the president ^the Society for
"

Psychical
Research " and were I now introducing
for
the first time these inquiriesto the world of science
I should choose a starting pointdifferent from that of
old. It would be well to begin with telepathy^ with
the fundamental law, as I believe it to be, that
thoughts and images may be transferred from one
mind to another without the agency of the recognised
organs of sense " that knowledge may enter the human
mind without being communicated in any hitherto
known or recognised ways. A formidable range ...

of phenomena must be scientificallylifted before we

effectuallygrasp a facultyso strange,so bewildering,
and for ages so inscrutable as the direct action of
mind on mind. This delicate task needs a rigorous
employment of the method of exclusion a constant "

settingaside of irrelevant phenomena that could be

explainedby known causes, includingthose far too
familiar conscious and
causes, unconscious fraud.
*
An eminent professorin this chair declared that by
an intellectual necessity he crossed the boundary of
experimentalevidence,and discerned in that matter,
which we in our ignoranceof its latent powers, and
notwithstanding our professed reverence for its
Creator,have hitherto covered with opprobrium,the
potency and promiseof all terrestriallife.' I should
preferto reverse the apothegm, and to say that in
life I see the promise and potency of all forms of
matter.
Egyptian days a well-known inscription
''
In old
was carved over the portal of the temple of Isis :
'
I am whatever hath been, is,or ever will be ; and
my veil no man hath yet lifted.' Not thus do modern
 SPIRITUALISM PURSUES SCIENCE
239

seekers after truth confront Nature "

the word that

stands for the baffling mysteries of the universe "

steadily, unflinchingly, we
strive to pierce the inmost

heart of Nature, from what she is to reconstruct what

she has been, and to prophesy what she yet shall be.

Veil after veil we have lifted, and her face more

grows
beautiful, august and wonderful with barrier
every
that is withdrawn/'
 CHAPTER XXXI

THE ONLY SCIENTIFIC BASIS OF EVOLUTION IS VOLITION

\I HAVE spoken of in
spiritualism, this book, in a

/ broad sense. I have made it,in itslargerscope,

i coincident with a universe controlled by a psychism ;
^ to universe in which the force know
a only we or can

know is volition ; to a universe in which law and

order,development and harmony, are the results of a

law-maker and an orderer,a developer and a har-

moniser ; and in which we human beings,as even

Herbert Spencer concedes,are endowed with the same

kindred of spiritualpowers in individualised and
specialisedform as the great psychism from which
we are derived. And our individualities are here
under probation for
beyond the grave.
a future
What are called spiritualistic phenomena may be
true, probably are true, if religion is true ; for these
two are kindred. But if spiritualistic phenomena are
not true, only because it is impossiblethat they
should be true, then of a surety religion itself of every
cult and kind,manhood, womanhood, honour,honesty,
decency, virtue,chastity, purity,love,justice, truth,
fidelity,morality, fatherhood, motherhood and
brotherhood, are none of them true.
Romanes has told us in pregnant sentences,in his
*'
Candid Examination of Religion,"how religion
itself,
or theology rather,had thrown away its God-

given charter, which is that

only the God is not
source, but the life and movement of all things,and
that it had aUied itself with materiahsm, in granting
natural physicalcausation that is,a non-intelligent "

causation, and yet resultingin intelligent order.

''
*'
No one,''he says, even the most orthodox, has
as yet learnt this lesson of religion to anything Hke

240
 THE BASIS OF EVOLUTION 241

fulness. God is still grudged His own universe,so

to speak,as far and as often as He possibly can be. . . .

It is still assumed on both sides (that is,by this

theology and this materialism),that there must be
something inexplicableor miraculous about a

phenomenon in order to its being divine.

*' ''
What else,"he says, have science and religion
ever had to fight about, save on the basis of this
common hypothesis,and hence as to whether the
causation of such or such a phenomenon has been
' ' '
natural or
'
supernatural ? For even the dis-
putes
as to science contradicting scriptureultimately
turn on the assumption of inspiration (supposingit
' '
genuine)being supernatural as to its causation.
' '
Once grant that it is natural and all possible ground
of dispute is removed.
**
Only because we are so familiar with the great
phenomenon of causalitydo we take it for granted,
and think that we reach an ultimate explanationof
anything when we have succeeded in findingthe
' '
cause thereof : when, in point of fact,"he says,
''
we have only succeeded in merging it into the
mystery of mysteries."
Both Romanes and Sir John Herschel,and most
other great scientificauthorities, agree that the only
known force and known cause of anythingis volition,
continuous, ever-acting, intelligent, directive,pur-
posive
and impelling volition.
There is no other which we can see, know, under-
stand,
or of which we can conceive.
With this divine volition conceded, we can have,
and we do have, as all
intelligent plan,
can see, an

and progression, from the relatively lower to the

relativelyhigher an intelligentand
"
intelligible
evolution ; without it there is, there can be, no
'' "
evolution at all, for evolution is the evolving, the
out-turning, of the scheme, or plan,or process, which
we recogniseas the order of nature. Without such
there is no order. But only disorder,accidental
jumblingsand breakings-up, as well go backward as

forward ; that thingsproceedin an orderlyand com- prehensible

manner is proof absolute that they pro-

242 SPIRIT AND MATTER

ceed by means of an orderer, and that this orderer

was, and is,the prior comprehender ; in other words

there is,as Lamarck held, an intelhgentpower which
transcendsnature, which was before nature, and is

independent of nature, and controls nature to do its

will "
and this is what we call God ; he may pass by
many names, but, if he have these qualifications,
then
he is God ; if,on the contrary, he have not these
qualifications, then, though he be called God in a
hundred languages, he is not God. And with such a
real God all that we see going on around us, and much
of which we can comprehend, is preciselywhat we

ought to expect. Through all the world-process is

orderliness and advancement ; and we, the microcosm,
can follow with comprehending eyes the macrocosm
which carries all things along with it. Outside this,
who can comprehend or feel with Longfellow's aspir- ing
youth, with his flag on the mountain peak,
"
Excelsior," and the dead body which has won by
its losing; or Olive Schreiner's dream-hero, who,
climbing unending mountains for truth, at last saw,
at his highest ascent, fluttering down to him, a single
feather from her glorious plumage, and there died
content ?
Be sure Professor William James is right when he

says,
''
We and God have business with each other.**
Here is a little Persian Poem from Jalalu'd-Din, a
Sufi poet, who wrote seven centuries ago :

"
I died from rock and sand, and rose a plant,
I died from plant, and grew a living breath,
I died from lower flesh, and rose a man,
Why should I fear ? What have I lost by death ?
When next I
die, 'twill be to die from man,
And on angel wings to higher place.
rise
And from the angel still shall rise,and rise,
*
For all shall perish, save alone His face.'
And I shall wing my way to higher spheres.
And transcend all I here can know, or learn.
Then let me now be naught, for the harp-string
* "
Crieth, To Him indeed we shall return.'
246 SPIRIT AND MATTER

I have cited all the principal of history,

religions
and those
prehistoricones which have cast their beams
of lightthrough the stone age, the ages of bronze,
iron,steel,and, alas ! gold,up to our highestand
and shown
latest civilisations, that they could all
unite with their fundamental beliefs in the same

words, and used in the same sense.

Turning from the of

religions other peoples to
our I have
own, shown how ancient paganisms had
graduallyforced art into their service,so that art
itself became sacerdotal, and intertwined with
mythology, and its beautiful arms were so entwined,
by centuries of pressure, with older and falser accre-
tions,
that Christianity
when arose in its strength,
like a young it
giant, was forced to crush out art in
crushingpaganism.
But I endeavoured to show, also, that when the full
triumph of the new faith had come, art again was
welcomed, as God's most beautiful giftto man, and
religion and art againwent hand in hand.
So too, I endeavoured to show that Christianity
with all its power, and in the day of its world-
conquering dominion, had forced spiritualism into a
like sacerdotal bondage to the church, and when the
greatrevolt of the sixteenth century came. Protestant-
ism,
in attackingthe old and corrupt accretions of
ecclesiastical organisation, was compelled to crush
spiritualism in order to secure its own position.
Driven perforce from the divine control of the
church, and the divine preservationof the Bible,
driven from miracles,from the supernormal as re- vealed

in the promisesof its Founder, it was compelled

to positan ever-present and operative Nature, to take
the placeof an ever-present and inworkingGod.
Natural science,new-born as it was, found its
vogue, and a new and popular ally, in this theology
without TheoSj and these two forces claspedhands ;
and againstthem, for centuries, all the strengthof a
spiritual religion and a scientificpsychologywas spent
in vain.
"
"
Natural Causation became the god of both
creeds,and the onlydifference between them was that
 REVIEW OF PARTS L, II.,AND III. 247
faith(and such faith)taught one wing that later on

(how, or when, or where, or why, or to what purpose,

no one could say, for the occasion then must have
longpassedby) some monstrous form would come out
of the clouds,whether above or below, or from one
side,with the blare of trumpets, and shout of the
archangel,and separate the goats from the sheep,
and, to quote Burns* prayer,
"
Send ane to heaven and ten to hell,
A' for thy glory.''

I do not mean to say that that whole branch of

the church was in this lamentable state ; far from it.
On the contrary I believe that the vast preponderance
of all that has worked for man's advancement, and
indeed for his spiritual enfranchisement and poten-
tiality,
has been due to just this and like popular
movements.
I am speakingof the rockbound
forbidding creeds
'' *'
and confessions which, while ever present and n

the
aggressive, bulk
people never did accept, of the
and never could accept, but which, by their very
presence and authority,paralysedthe power of the
church in dealingwith the forms and forces of
materialism.
I said, upon one occasion,to a sweet-faced
''
Presbyterianlady : Could you sit here quietlyand
listen to this music, and enjoy it,if you knew that
your mother was now being burned alive by wicked
" *'
people next door ? Heavens, no ! Why do you
*'

say that ? "I understand that you had a brother

whom you dearlyloved,and who died unconverted.'*
''
After a pause, I will trust him, and all mine, to
God," was her beautiful reply.
With this perverted theology and baseless piricism
em-

so bound up together, when what Romanes

'' ''
called the nearly fatal mistake had been made,
the real truth and significance
of all thingshad no
chance whatever; a vague and shadowy faith was left,
but it was a baseless, credulous
superstitious, faith,
againstthe code, and which could not be
boldlyde-
fended
in public,but could only be wept and prayed
248 SPIRIT AND MATTER

over in private and for demonstration of the eternal

;

there was but one thing left to do "

^to wait.

-
The mills of God grind slowly,
But they grind exceeding small."

Time needed for the seed to be and

was sown,

to ripen into the gleaming harvest time for new

;

machines to be discovered, and perfected for new

;

lines of investigation to be carried out for whole

;

sciences to be created for, by the of mind

new ; power

matter, God proposed to destroy the of

over power

matter over
mind.

The time has come at last, and empiricism and

materialism are retreating, and divine volition and

spiritualism advancing, with giant And

are sweeps.
this time they come to stay ; everything else has been

tried and failed, during this time of ing,

wait-
even weary

and reawakened psychology, with

a new weapons

and new
facts is now coming, with

**
Banners yellow, glorious, golden,"

full-armed and full-panoplied, and the sky is all alight

with their approach.
 CHAPTER XXXIII

TESTIMONY OF ABLE AUTHORITIES, IN LETTERS TO THE

DIALECTICAL SOCIETY, IN FAVOUR OF THE TRUTH

AND IMPORTANCE OF SPIRITUAL PHENOMENA

I HAVEspoken much of spiritualism in the preceding

chapters; I have spoken of the broad spirituaHsmof
the universe;of the cosmical spirituaHsm of telepathy,
thought-transference, previsionand clairvoyance ; of
the individual spiritualism of the working mind and
instinct "; of the primordial,earthly spiritualism of
the lowest forms of life ; of the spiritualism of the
subconscious department of the mind, especially of n

the human mind, and of genius,invention, inspiration

and other forms of what the ancient Chinese named
''
''
ling ; and also of the phenomena
mediumship. of
Broadly speaking,we all
mediums, justas we are
are

all poets, or farmers, or soldiers, but partially developed

un-

ones ; for the specialists in these lines are

both born with the power and developed by its use.

This latter form of spiritualism, mediumship, is that
which can be best and most easily investigated, which
most certainlyleads us to the knowledge of higher
planesof the supernormal,and it is the co-VvOrker and
supporter of religion, by givingcertaintyto our sur- vival

after death, which is the basis of all religions ;

and, with some reluctance, I feel that I ought to
say something of my own personal studies in this
field.
Referringagainto the London Dialectical Society,
there were many men eminent who wrote letters to
the Dialectical Society,
from which I will make very
brief extracts, prefatoryto my own observations.
''
George H. Lewes wrote : When any man says
that phenomena are produced by no known physical
249
 250 SPIRIT AND MATTER

laws,he declares he knows the laws by which they

are produced."
The converse, of course, is equally applicable:
"
When any man says that certain phenomena are
not produced by any laws,he declares that he knows
all the laws by which phenomena are produced/'
Dr J. G. Davey, M.D., of Bristol,wrote, regarding
''
his investigations, that they have not only removed
whatever doubts did once belong to me, but have
convinced of many
me great and solemn truths in
regard to the future of man which, anterior to 1862,
were altogether ignoredby me, and deemed scarcely
worthy of the nursery."
'^
Dr J. J. Garth Wilkinson wrote : I have been a
believer in the spiritual
world, and its nearness to the
natural world, nearlyall my life. And the rareness
of communication between the two is to me one of the
greatestof miracles ; a proofof the economic wisdom,
the supreme management, the extraordinarystates-
manship,
of the Almighty."
Mr Newton Crossland,of Lynton Lodge,Vanburgh
''
Park Road, Blackheath, wrote : The facts of
spiritualism
are to me as certain and indisputable
as those table."
of the multiplication
r Edwin Arnold (afterwardsSir Edwin Arnold),
''
1 M.A.,wrote : The statement to which I am prepared
to attach my name is this : that conjoinedwith the

,
rubbish of much ignoranceand some deplorablefolly
j and fraud, there is a body of well-established facts
i beyond denial and outside any existing philosophical
J explanation, which facts promise to open a new world
\ of human inquiryand experience, are in the highest
/ degree interesting, and tend to elevate ideas of the
I continuityof life,and to reconcile,perhaps, the
materialist and metaphysician."
Mr J. Hawkins Simpson, who experimentedwith
Mr Home, mentions a case of crystalvision which
illustrates what I shall say later on regardingthe
simultaneous appearance in the crystalapparently,
of the same apparentlyobjectiveview, by a number
of persons lookingat the same time into the crystal.
*'
He says : When I tell you that a largelandscape
 TESTIMONY OF ABLE AUTHORITIES 251
view,as carried brain,in my
was made perfectly visible
in the sphericalcrystalto everyone in a dark room,
although the individuals composing the party occupied
oppositeplacesto each other, and no one, except
Mr Home, who held the crystal, was within three
feet of the crystal ; you will admit that a field of
inquiryis here opened up which would yieldresults
increasingour knowledge of mental action,etc.,
''
etc.
Miss A. Goodrich-Freer of the
S.P.R.,in her ex-
cellent
'*
Essays in PsychicalResearch,''c ites a case
in which she and a friend went to the new galleryto
'* "
see the shew-stone which the
Kelley, Scryer,used,
hundreds of years ago, and which was kept in a glass
case. They both gazed into it simultaneously, as,
''

says the author, We were particularlyanxious to

*'
achieve collective vision.
a At her home was an

old hand-organ,which would not play. After the

ladies had left home for this visit,
a friend dropped
in accidentally, and, with a brother then there,fixed n

it up and set it going,a most unexpected and totally

'*
unknown circumstance. Says Miss Freer : In the
crystalwe both saw the followingscene : we saw "

them sitting opposite

at sides of the in
fireplace the
room where it was kept,but while I, in my picture,
so to speak, faced the risrht,my friend faced the
left."
This,and many other
instances, seem to show that
the vision is not merely a replica of a visualised idea
in the clairvoyant's mind. It is as though the object
was under inspection, and subjectto the usual laws of
''
position and perspective, for each separate gazer."
Mr Hockley, a witness who gave his testimony
concerningcrystalgazing to the Dialectical Society
(seeReport pp. 184-187), furnishes a number of unusual
cases, havingcollected,he says, more than twelve thou-
sand
answers to questions, and his testimonyis corro- borated

by like facts from other sources. Mr Hockley

*^
says that, on one occasion, a man appeared in the
small crystal with a book before him, and she saw it
was splendidlydone but too small to read. I gave
her a powerful reading-glass, and she could then read
252 SPIRIT AND MATTER

it,for the
glassincreased the size." At the Earl of
Stanhope's request he obtained for Lieutenant
(Captain)Burton, a crystaland a black mirror,which
Burton afterwards used in the East. This witness
never could see anything in a crystalhimself,but
relied on what the visualiser told him, but he appeared
to have used very scientifictests,as his examination
by the committee shows.
John Tyndall wrote the Dialectical Societyvery
courteously,but stated that Mr Cromwell Varley,a
well-known spiritualist,
paid him a visit,and told
*'
him, says Mr Tyndall, that my presence at a seance
resembled that of a great magnet among a number of
smaller ones. I throw all into confusion."
Such personalities,outside of mere conscious
antagonism, are not uncommonly met with. They
**
are usually those too much immersed in merely
physical research,"or those others,to whom Romanes
refers,as made consciouslymiserable by feedingon
the husks of materialism, until they have been bound
down thereby, and have lost what Professor James
*'
calls the will to believe."
Belief is
something to be earned ; as Romanes
says, unbelief is usuallydue to indolence,often to
prejudice, and never a thing to be proud of ; doubt

may be scientific, pending investigation, but denial

on an a priori never.

Dr William B. Carpenterwrote : ''There are cer- tain

phenomena which are quite genuine, and must

be considered as fair subjectsof scientific study. My
inquirieshave led me to the conclusion,however,
that the source of these phenomena does not lie in any
communication ah extra^but that they depend upon
the subjectivecondition of the individual which
operates according to certain recognised physiological
laws."
To this letter he
appended an abstract in support
'' " ''
of his recognition of these physiological laws,"
coveringmore than ten printedpages, in which not
one experimentis reported bearingon these subjects
but in which philosophicalspeculation takes the part
of practical study,which latter,and n6t the former,
254 SPIRIT AND MATTER

on the stage before an audience,but I do not think

that they would have seemed the same to him as they
did in the silence of the night,and under the stances
circum-
encountered by himself. In fact,he told the
''
doctor that they were which
inexplicable,*' seems

to prove this fact.

Mr TroUope spiritualist.
was not Long after-
a wards,
in his book of reminiscences, "What I Remem-
ber,''
he says : ''I have spoken at lengthin my former
' '
volume of the various spiritualistic or table-
moving experiences, which I have met with at various
times : I gave, I think, upon the whole, a rather
unfavourable impression of the genuinenessof the
phenomena I recorded. I think it honest therefore
to mention here a record taken from my diary at a
much later date, which seems to afford evidence in
'
the other direction .'
In this experimenthe confined himself to numbers,
"
asked for mentally. Numbers of questionswere
asked, with the result that some rather startling
replies were elicited. But as all this was liable to
more or less of doubt, to the possibility of trickery,
and the probability of misunderstanding, I asked if
' '
the spiritwould name a number I should think of,
which was accordinglypromised. I thought of five,
and that number was at once, and without any tenta-
tive
guesses, correctly given. I tried again,but care-
lessly

removed my hands from the table,and was

answered wrong. I then replacedmy hands on the
table,thought of another number, which was at once

correctly given. Some others of the party then tried

the same experiment,and stated that the number
they had thought of had been correctly named. On
a subsequent occasion, the result (barring
one mistake)
was exactly similar."
From personalexperienceI can say that the re- moving

of the hands after a questionhas been asked,

and before it has been answered, seems to produce
a feeling of disguston the part of the manipulating
agency, justas if one should ask someone in company
a question, and then turn away before listening for the
reply. Only a few days ago, I asked one of the sitters
 TESTIMONY OF ABLE AUTHORITIES 255

at the table to reach for a pencil,and wrote down the

answer whatto I had just asked, which was the
orthography of an unknown name then being given.
The result was that it took about ten minutes to woo
back the offended mechanician,althoughhe had been
working the like a
table,before the interruption, mill,
saw-

bump, bump, bump (yes), bump (no),bump,

bump, bump ; bump-bump-bump ; bump-bump-
bump ; bump, etc.
It is justas common an experiencefor a table to
answer mental questionsas spoken ones; in fact,
they are only spoken,in general, to keep up the inter-
est
of the others present.
Mrs Lsetitia Lewis wrote the Dialectical Society :
''
I must inform you that I am not a medium and had
no belief in spiritstill I became convinced almost
againstmy will. Whilst
residingat my home in
South Wales during the springof the present year
(1870), most wonderful spiritualmanifestations
occurred spontaneouslyto myself and daughter.'*
She appends a privateletter to a near relative,a
clergyman in the Church of England,describing these
phenomena. These were in the nature of rappings,
poltergeistphenomena, and automatic writing,
largelyrelating to a lost will,and which nearlyscared
the daughterto death.
I need hardly refer the reader to the published
records of the well-known experimentsof Sir William
Crookes, and especially to his most fascinating nar-
ratives

of his materialising in
experiments, his own
house, with Katie King, and particularly to his last
interview and final parting with this materialised
visitant from the past, while the medium lay silent
and unconscious by her side,or distant from her,but
visible in another room.
Surely,in view of the experiencesnarrated by
others,it is not only a rightbut a duty,in the cause of
science, to dispassionately describe examples of such
phenomena as have manifested themselves to us,
of an apparently supernormal character,and thus
**
advance our knowledge of the character,faculties,
extent, sources and departments,and the connections
256 SPIRIT AND MATTER

of the human mind, by thoroughly practicaland

scientificmethods."
In the cases which I have cited in this volume I
have endeavoured to use them only for illustration,
and to avoid the startling5 and I should hesitate to
present this narrative of Sir William Crookes, en-
titled,
''
The Last of Katie King,*'to an inexperienced
public,were it not that the distinguishedauthor was
himself the experimenter; that every scientific pre-
caution
was taken with medium,
fifteen-year-old the
domiciled in his own house, and with his family,
where the experiments took place; that he wrote
down the narrative with his own hand ; and that so

recentlyas September 1898 declared,to the he most

eminent scientific audience possibleto be assembled,
that,referring to his own work, alongthese lines and
to his own records of the same "

''
I have
nothing to retract. I adhere to my
alreadypublishedstatements. Indeed I might add
much thereto.*'
And in this Presidential Address,before the British
Association for the Advancement of Science,he clearly
set forth the only possibleway in which science can

be advanced. The scientific world has been the

of
beneficiary his teaching,for during the few inter-
vening
years its whole status has been changed.
The narrative of Sir William Crookes of the last
'* "

appearance of the materialised form of Katie King

''
is contained in his book entitled, Researches in the
Phenomena Spiritualism,"reprintedfrom The
of
QuarterlyJournal of Science,and it is most pathetic
as well as instructive,
as it is told. The followingis
the narrative : "

*'
During the week before Katie took her ture
depar-
she gave seancesnightly, at my house almost
to enable me to photograph her by artificial light.
Five complete sets of photographic apparatus were
accordinglyfitted up for the purpose, consisting of
five cameras, one of the whole-platesize,one half-
plate, one quarter-plate, and two binocular stereoscopic
cameras, which were all brought to bear upon Katie
at the same time on each occasion on which she
 TESTIMONY OF ABLE AUTHORITIES 257
stood portrait.Five sensitising
for her and fixing
baths were used, and plenty of plateswere cleaned
ready for use in advance, so that there might be no
hitch or delay during the photographingoperations,
which were performed by myself, aided by one
assistant.
'*
My librarywas used as a dark cabinet. It has
foldingdoors opening into the laboratory; one of
these doors was taken off its hinges,and a curtain
suspended in its placeto enable Katie to pass in and
out easily. Those of our friends who were present
were seated in the laboratoryfacingthe curtain,and
the cameras were placed a little behind them, ready
to photograph Katie when she came outside,and to
photograph anything also inside the cabinet,when- ever
the curtain was withdrawn for the purpose.
Each evening there were three or four exposures of
platesin the five cameras, giving at least fifteen
separate picturesat each seance ; some of these were
spoiltin the developing,and some in regulating the
amount of light. Altogether I have forty-four
negatives, some inferior,some indifferent, and some
excellent. "

''
Katie instructed all the sittersbut myselfto keep
their seats and keep conditions,
to but for some time
past she has givenme permissionto do what I liked "

to touch her, and to enter and leave the cabinet

almost whenever I pleased. I have frequently
,
followed her into the cabinet, and have sometimes^
seen her and the medium together,but most generally
I have found nobody but the entranced medium lying
on the floor,Katie and her white robes having
instantaneously disappeared.''
''
During the last six months Miss Cook has been a
frequentvisitor at my house, remaining sometimes
a week at a time. She bringsnothingwith her but a
little hand-bag, not locked ; during the day she is
constantlyin the presence of Mrs Crookes,myself,or
some member of my family,and, not sleepingby
herself,there is absolutelyno opportunityfor any
preparation, even of a less elaborate character than
would be required for enacting Katie King. I
258 SPIRIT AND MATTER

prepare and arrange my librarymyself as the dark

cabinet,and usually,after Miss Cook has been dining
and conversingwith us and scarcelyout of our sight
for a minute, she walks direct into the cabinet,and I,
at her request, lock its second door, and
keep pos-
session
of the key all through the seance ; the gas is
then turned out, and Miss Cook is left in darkness.
*'
enteringthe cabinet Miss Cook lies down
On
upon the floor, and is soon
with her head on a pillow,
entranced. During the photographicseances, Katie
muffled her medium's head
up in a shawl to prevent
the lightfalling
upon her face. I
frequentlydrew the
curtain on one side when Katie was standingnear,
and it was a common thingfor the seven or eightof us

illthe laboratoryto see Miss Cook and Katie at the

same time, under the full blaze of the electric light.
We did not on these occasions actuallysee the face
of the medium because of the shawl, but we saw her
hands and feet ; we saw her move uneasilyunder the
influence of the intense light, and we heard her moan
occasionally.I have one photograph of the two
together,but Katie is seated in front of Miss Cook's
head.
''
During the time I have taken an active part in
these seances Katie's confidence in me
graduallygrew,
until she refused give to a charge
seance unless I took
of the arrangements. She said she always wanted
me to keep close to her, and near the cabinet,and I
found that after this confidence was established,and
she was satisfied that I would not break any promise
I might make to her, the phenomena increased
greatlyin power ; and tests were freelygiven that
would have been unobtainable had I approached
the subjectin another manner. She often consulted
me about persons present at the seances, and where
they should be placed,for of late she had become
very nervous, in consequence of certain ill-advised
suggestionsthat force should be employed as an
adjunctto more scientific modes of research."
''
One of the most interesting of the picturesis
one in which I am standing by the side of Katie ;
she has her bare feet upon a particular part of the
 TESTIMONY OF ABLE AUTHORITIES 259
floor. Afterwards I dressed Miss Cook like Katie,
placed her myself in exactlythe same
and position,
and we were photographed by the same cameras,
placedexactly as in the other experiment, and ated
illumin-
by the same light. When these two pictures are

placed over each other,the two photographs of my- self

coincide exactlyas regardsstature,etc.,but Katie
is half a head taller than Miss Cook, and looks a big
woman in comparison with her. In the breadth
of her face, in many of the pictures, she differs
essentially in size from her medium, and the photo-graphs
show several other pointsof difference.
"
Having seen so much of Katie lately, when she
has been illuminated by the electric light,I am
enabled to add to the pointsof difference between her
and her medium which I mentioned in a former
article. I have the most absolute certainty
that Miss
Cook and Katie are two separate individuals so far
as their bodies are concerned. Several little marks
on Miss Cook^s face are absent on Katie's "
Miss Cook's
hair is so brown dark
as almost to appear
a black ; a

lock of Katie's which is now before me, and which she

allowed me her luxuriant tresses,having
to cut from
firsttraced it up to the scalpand satisfied myselfthat
it actually grew there,is a rich golden auburn.
**
On one evening I timed Katie's pulse. It beat
steadilyat 75, while Miss Cook's pulse a littletime
after was going at its usual rate of 90. On applying
my ear to Katie's chest I could hear a heart beating
rhythmicallyinside ; and pulsating even more steadily
than did Miss Cook's heart when she allowed me to try
a similar experiment after the seance. Tested in the
same way Katie's lungswere found to be sounder than
her medium's, for at the time I tried my experiment
Miss Cook was under medical treatment for a severe

cough.
*'
When the time came for Katie to take her fare-
well
that she would
I asked let me see the last of her.
Accordinglywhen she had called each of the company
up to her and had
them a few words
spoken in to
private,she gave some generaldirections for the future
guidanceand protectionof Miss Cook. From these,
26o SPIRIT AND MATTER

which were taken down in shorthand, I quote the

'
following
: " Mr
Crookes has done very well,through-
out,
and I leave Florrie with the greatest confidence
in his hands, feeling he will not abuse
perfectly
sure

the trust I placein him. He can act in any emergency

better than I can myself,for he has more strength.'
Having concluded directions,
her Katie invited me

into the cabinet with her, and allowed me to remain

there to the end.
''
the curtain she conversed
After closing with me

for some time, and then walked across the room to

where Miss Cook
lying senseless on the floor.
was

Stooping over her, Katie touched her, and said,

*
Wake up, Florrie, wake up ! I must leave you now.'
Miss Cook then woke and tearfully entreated Katie to
'
stay a little time longer. My dear, I can't ; my
work is done. God bless you,' Katie replied, and
then continued speakingto Miss Cook. For several
minutes the two were conversingwith each other,till
at last Miss Cook's tears prevented her speaking.
FollowingKatie's instructions, I then came forward
to support Miss Cook, who was fallingto the floor,
sobbinghysterically.I looked round, but the white-
robed Katie had gone. As soon as Miss Cook was

calmed, a lightwas
sufliciently procuredand I led her
out of the cabinet."
With reference to the photographs described in
the above narrative (of which I am the possessor of
one),it should be noted that these are photographs
of a visible and tangibleform. But there are other
spirit-photographs, of which I feel that I should say
something,because popular ignorancehas here left
an open door for scepticism and denial,instead of for
research and evidence In regardto these phenomena,
.

''
as with reference to miracles," in a previouschapter,
I am not called upon to assert the actuality of such
photographs which reveal upon the plate,and the
printstherefrom, forms and faces which were visible
in-
and intangible, and which in many cases are

identifiable as portraits of loved ones now dead. If

I can show the scientificstatus of these phenomena,
and that they are scientifically possible,then my
262 SPIRIT AND MATTER

friends knew nothing of, as they had not then been

born.
I had moved into theneighbourhoodin 1868,and
duringthe latter part of the war, which closed in 1865,
this fine old residence had been used for quite other
purposes, and there was a tradition of the tragical
death of a young girlin this house about 1863 or
1865. The circumstances I did not know, and it was
not then well to inquireabout, but such were the
facts. I do not say that this picturerepresentsthat
girl, or anybody ; I do not say that it was not a bad
flaw of the developingfluid ; I only say that some- thing

came on that plate which was not seen hand,

before-
and was never seen, nor anything like it,in
that room afterwards,and the character was such as
^as recognisable by me.
But I am interested in showing that invisible and
intangible objectscan be and often are photographed,
''
and quite as clearlyand conspicuouslyas crude
matter.'' In fact,if we depended on the visible and
tangiblewe could not photograph at all.
Who does not know of the mirage,in which beauti-ful
scenes, lakes,and the like,appear in the distance
real enough to carry conviction to anyone ? I have
seen these both in northern and tropical regions, and
they can be photographed,and often have been, yet
here we look upon a plate or printitself composed of
physicalmatter, chemical compounds, and yet these
portray merely ethereal lightplayingupon invisible
strata of an invisible atmosphere.
'' "
Marmery, in his Progressof Science (London,
1895),says: ''The one result which surpasses all others
in importance,and adds immensely to our knowledge
of the elementary forces which govern the universe,
is the ascertaining that atomic energy as shown by
Crookes, Thomson (Lord Kelvin), and Tesla, is
millions of times greater and more powerfulthan any
with which we are acquainted." So Professor Knott,
" "
of Edinburgh University, in his Physics (1897),
says of sound :
**
The ear is sensitive to impulsesonly when these
come faster than 20 or 30 times a second, and more
 TESTIMONY OF ABLE AUTHORITIES 263
slowlythan 70,000 times a second.
about The limits
vary a good deal with different ears, some are sensitive
to highshrill sounds,when others hear nothing.''I have
italicised the part which dogmatism denies. It is
well known many lower forms
that of certain
life,
insects and lower, hear sounds which are to us

altogether inaudible ; and we know how the

microphone will so translate and emphasise
inaudible sounds that the step of a housefly's
foot will sound like the crack of a bat againsta
baseball.
We know too that, in the phenomena of light, v

when we set a bar of iron into low red incandescence,

it will send only red rays by oscillations of the
adjacentether,and, as it glows to full incandescence, i

it will send the whole

solar spectrum. But we cannot .4
see it all. There is an invisible spectrum far beyond /\ '^\''
the visible, and far more extensive,and this will im- u(i^'^^^
press a photographicplateas stronglyas the visible
part. If one paints on a sheet of white paper a

portraitor scene with a solution of a salt of quinine,

when it sheet of paper will be as white as
dries,the ,

it was before. But if placedbefore a camera it will j

photograph this invisible portraitor scene with all the i
^
^
force and vigourof a man or a landscapeif these were

as physicalas all brute creation.

Nor does lightstop painta picture
at this. If we

:on a sheet of paper with an anhydrous paintof many

of the sulphides, say calcium sulphide, and expose it
to sunlight, the ethereal waves of lightwill set up
such a commotion in the chemical coatingthat all
nightlong the picturewill glow with all the force and
fire of the original, but in total darkness.
Further along,in Chapter XLIIL, I have dealt
with the ether as a motive force,and an intelligently
controlled medium
but it may be here said
; that,
if normally invisible and intangible exist
spirits (and
surely all religious
people so believe,and most of
those also who all those
do not claim to be religious,
in fact who which, as I have
believe in a future life,
elsewhere shown, comprisesubstantially all peopleof
all races and in every age),then if these spirits
are
264 SPIRIT AND MATTER

anything at all they must be something, and if they

ethereal then they and are part of that
are occupy

which is immeasurably the most dynamic and the

most capable of doing photographic work in all the

realm of nature.
 ^i-

CHAPTER XXXIV

CARLYLE ON MIRACLES "

EVIDENCE BY CHRISTIAN VERTS
CON-

OF THE REALITY OF SUPERNORMAL FESTATIONS

MANI-

OF ESKIMO AND OTHER PSYCHICS

I HAVE frequently been asked to giveexamples of such

apparentlyspiritualistic, and certainly supernormal,
phenomena, as I have spoken of in these chapters.
There seems to be a general, but quiteunnecessary,
ignorance or misunderstanding concerning these
very common experiments. I have usuallyquoted
from recent scientific authorities in support of my
views, but I will make a brief extract here from one
who has influenced mankind as largely, perhaps,from
the supernormal side,as any during recent years I "

'^ *'
refer to Thomas Carlyle.In his Sartor Resartus he
says:
''Deephas been, and is, of Miracles,
the significance
far deeperperhapsthan we imagine. Meanwhile,the
question of questionswere : What speciallyis a
miracle ? To that Dutch King of Siam, an iciclehad
been a miracle ; whoso had carried with him an air-
pump, and vial of vitriolicether,might have worked a

miracle. To my unhappilyis still

Horse, again,who
more unscientific, do not I work a miracle,and
' '
magical Open Sesame ! every time I pleaseto pay
twopence, and open for him an impassableor shut
turnpike?
''
'But is not a real miracle simplya violation of the
'
Laws of Nature ? ask several. Whom I answer by
' '
this new question: What are the Laws of Nature ?
To me perhaps the raisingof one from the dead
were no violation of these laws, but a confirma-
tion
; were some far deeper law, now first pene-
trated
into,and by SpiritualForce, even as the rest
265
 266 SPIRIT AND MATTER

have all been brought to bear on us with its Material

Force.
"
Here
may some inquire,
too not without ishment
aston-
'
: On what ground shall one, that can make
Iron swim, come and declare that thenceforth he can
'
teach Religion ? To us, truly,of the Nineteenth
Century, such declaration were ineptenough ; which,
nevertheless, our fathers,
to o f the First Century,was
full of meaning.
'' *
But is it not the deepestLaw of Nature that she
' '
be constant ? cries an illuminated class : Is not
the Machine of the Universe fixed to move by alterable
un-
'
rules ? Probable enough, good friends :

Nay, I,too, must believe that the God whom ancient

'
inspiredmen assert to be without variableness or
'
shadow turning does indeed never
of change ; that
Nature, that the Universe,which no one whom it so
pleasescan be prevented from callinga machine,
does move by the most unalterable rules. And now
of you, too, I make the old inquiry: What those same
unalterable rules,forming the complete Statute-Book
of Nature, may possiblybe.
*'
They stand written in our Works of Science,say
you; in the accumulated records of Man's Experience.
Was man with his experience present at the Creation,
then, to see how it all went on ? Have any deepest .

scientific individuals yet dived down to the founda-

tions
of the Universe,aiid gauged everythingthere ?
Did the Maker take them into His counsel ; that they
read His ground-plan of the incomprehensible All ;
'
and can say This stands marked therein,and no
[ more than this ? Alas, not in anywise ! These '

\ scientific individuals have been nowhere but where

I we also are ; have seen some hand-breadths deeper

\ than we see into the Deep that is without
infinite,
\bottom as without shore.
-
''
Custom doth make dotards of us all ! What
isPhilosophy throughout but a continual battle
against Custom ; an ever-renewed effort to scend
tran-
the sphere of blind Custom, and so become
' '
Transcendental .

In narratingany events of more or less interest,

 CARLYLE ON MIRACLES 267
as I shall do, all these will be found to be of types well
known to psychological investigators, and to those
who deal with the phenomena of comparative re- ligion.

While there always will be, to the sceptic,

and probably ought to be, a doubt of the accuracy of
reported phenomena, it may be in place to say that
such manifestations among heathen people,occurring
in their own experience, have in generalbeen main- tained
to have been genuine after these mediums or

psychics have been converted and baptised as

Christians, and were, for the rest of their lives, ing
lead-
"
Christian lives. In Nevius' Demon Possession,'*
(a clerical misnomer), his Chinese records are full of
these cases, and Sahagun and other early writers
on the Mexican and Central American religions firm
con-

such statements almost universally.The same

is true of the Red Indians,and, in fact, the rule is that
converts maintain the genuinenessof the phenomena.
In the missionary accounts given by Captain
J. F. Dennett, R.N., cited elsewhere, an apparition
of a boy'smother, while the boy was playingnear her
grave, not only appeared,and physically held him,
but spoke and prophesiedthat he would come to

strange people, who would instruct him in the

knowledge of Him who created heaven and earth,
etc., and was related by the boy himself to a mis- sionary
after his baptism, and confirmed by many
others.
The missionaryaccount states of these phenomena
that while coarse imposture was made apparent in
many instances,and though majority of their
the
''
Angekoks are doubtlesslymere jugglers, the class
includes a few people of real talent and penetration,
and perhaps a greater number of phantasts,whose
understandinghas been subverted by the influence
of some impressionstronglyworking on their fervid
imagination."
*'
Again : So much is certain that Angekoks who
have laid aside their professionin the waters of
baptism,while they acknowledge that the main part
is a tissue of fraud and imposture,are steadfast in
asserting that there is an interference of some super-
268 SPIRIT AND MATTER

natural agency ; something which they now abhor,

but are unable to describe/*
One mystical practices,one
of their form of
crystalvision,which is now universallyacknow-
ledged
even in the Bible,to be a means of'Working
through the subconscious,cannot be attributed to

imposture. In case an Eskimo out in his kayak is

missing,which is not uncommon, a tub of water is
procured,and shaded by the person inquiring.The
''

Angekok then looks into the water, and there they

behold the absentee either overturned in his kayak,
or rowing in his erect posture,''thus indicating the
fate of the absent one.

The narratives which follow

startling, nor
are not
are they intended to be. They are mostlyunpublished,
and principally the result of investigations by members
of the Societyfor PsychicalResearch. My objectis
to commence with the simplerphenomena of mere
telepathyor thought-transference, and then lead up
to more complicatedphenomena, in which apparently
the normal explanationspossible in the simplercases
successively fall away, and must be replacedby new
experiences, necessarily more and more difficult of
explanation on what, at present,would be considered
a normal basis. For I do not by any means grant
that any of these phenomena, in fact any phenomena
of nature, are really supernormal,and I use the term
merely in the sense that most of us use the words
'' "
"
extraordinary,'' surprising," astonishing,"
"
"
wonderful," remarkable," and the like such "

phrasesshadingoff,as we rise in the intellectual scale, ''

'' ''
to beautiful," illuminating," satisfying,"re-
''
vealing,"

etc.,and as we sink in the intellectual scale,

'' '* ''
to miraculous," incredible," nonsense," gross
''

superstition," "fraud," ^'lies," "bosh," "chatter,"

and the like.
And when all other explanationfails,
as it has so
often failed, there stillremains the long-derided, but
latelyacceptedtelepathy,and hypnotism,or its con- geners,

suggestionand magnetism. Quoting from

a late book dealing with the Cornwall fisheries,
"

Magaetism, my dear," said the vicar, if there's

"
 CHAPTER XXXV

PRACTICAL CASES CONTINUED "

CRYSTAL VISION "

CLAIRVOYANCE "
TRANSFERRED MENTAL POWER

Allied phenomena of thought transference,

to the
though often comprehending far more than mere

thought transference,is crystalvision. This is first

mentioned in the Bible in connection with the story
''
of Joseph in Egypt, in which it is said of the cup, Is
not this it in which my lord drinketh, and whereby
''
he indeed divineth ? The verb has the sense of
*'
accustomed to divine," and the word translated
''
divine '*
has elsewhere the sense of diviningor fore-
telling
by supernatural means. This divining by
water in vessels is common all over the world, as one
of the methods of crystalvision ; I have elsewhere
referred to its use among the Eskimo. I will cite two
examples, published,it is true, but in books not
popularlyknown, and having high authoritybehind
them.
Among early Pennsylvanian pioneerswas one
the
''
who afterwards became Colonel James Smith,''
and who spent several years of his early life a captive
among the Indians in Eastern Ohio, by whom he was
adopted. He afterwards wrote the narrative of his
life and travels among the Indians. Of this writer
''
President Roosevelt says, in his Winning of the
West,"
''
Smith is our best contemporary authorityon
Indian warfare ; he lived with them for several years,
and fought them campaigns."in many
His memoir
was publishedat Lexington,Ky., in
1799, afterwards by J. Pritts,and publishedin his
*'
Border Life," at Abington, Va., in 1849, ^^^ ^.t
Chamber sburg. Pa.
A party of sugar-makers went up to the head-
270
 PRACTICAL CASES CONTINUED 271
waters of Big Beaver Creek, to make maple sugar.
There were a number of squawsalong. It was not a
war party. The snow stilllayHghtly on the ground.
Across the creek was a country occupiedat times by
the Mohawks, who were hostile.
One night
squaw, outside her tent for some
a
''

purpose, raised an alarm ; she said she saw two

men with guns in their hands, upon the bank on the
other side of the creek,spying our tents, they were
supposed to be Johnson'sMohawks.''
Great alarm prevailed,and the squaws were

ordered to slipquietlyout some distance into the

bushes and hide themselves,and all the men with guns
or bows were to squat in the bushes near the tents,
''
and, the enemy
as rushed up we were to give them
the first fire,and let the squaws have an opportunity
of escaping."
There was a very old conjurer, of another tribe,
with the party, so old that he was bedridden, and
^*
had be carried
to on a litter. He was a professed
worshipperof the devil,"says the author.
The men carried Manetohcoa, the conjurer, at his
request, to the now vacant fire,in a tent, and gave
him his conjuringtools, among which was the shoulder-
blade bone of a wild cat, and Manetohcoa, says the
''
author, was in a tent at the conjuringaway
fire, to
the utmost of his ability."
The situation was dramatic enough, in those dark
woods.
*'
The narrative
proceeds: At length he called
aloud for us to come in,which was quicklyobeyed.
When we came in,he told us that after he had gone
through the whole of his ceremony, and expected to
see a number of Mohawks on the flat bone when it
was warmed at the fire,the picturesof two wolves
only appeared. thereHewere said, though
no

Mohawks about we must not be angry with the squaw

for givinga false alarm ; as she had occasion to go out,
and happened to see the wolves ; though it was light,
moon-

yet she got afraid,and she conceived it was

Indians with guns in their hands ; so he said we might

all go to sleep,for there was no danger,and accordingly
272 SPIRIT AND MATTER

we did. The next morning we went to the place, and

found wolf tracks,and where they had scratched with
their feet like dogs ; but there was no signof mocassin
tracks/'
The
shoulder-blade of an animal is a well-known
device for crystalgazing.
The significant
part of this narrative is the mediate
im-
result of the old
conjurer's experiment all "

hands returned,and went quietlyto sleep. This im-

plies
a large experience of the validityof these
''
practicesamong them. The author says, this
appeared to me the most like witchcraft of anything
I beheld while among them."
Of course, standingby itself,it would not have so
much validity,but it is directly
in line with the well-
known phenomena of crystalvision,which is well
known, and has been in all parts of the world
practised
from times immemorial, and which is found in vogue
in prehistoricAmerica from Terra del Fuego to the
Arctic Ocean.
The next citation I shall make is from the nine-
teenth
volume of the United States Government report
of the Bureau of Ethnology, in which one large
volume is devoted to the myths of the Cherokees,in
south-western North Carolina. The work, one of
is by James Mooney,
several, one of the best and most
reliable authors who has ever written on these subjects
and who worked from his own original studies on the
ground, assisted by a large corps of other
authorities.
" "
In his Notes and Parallels to the body of the
work, he comments crystalvision among
on these
peoplesas described in earlier portionsof the volume.
My purpose in introducingthis incident is that it
illustrates the fact that the visions seen in the crystal
are not merely subjective on the part of the operator,
but are visible, in certain cases, to observers, standing
by. The crystalemployed was of quartz, with a red

streak of the mineral rutile down its centre.

The incident,devoid of context, is as follows:
''
Many of the East Cherokees
who enlisted in the
Confederate service,during the late war, consulted
 PRACTICAL CASES CONTINUED 273
the Ulunsuti (Crystal)before starting, and survivors
declare that their experiencesverified the prediction.
One of these had gone with two others to consult the
fates. The conjurer,placingthe three men facing
him,took the upon the endof his outstretched
talisman
finger,and bade them look intentlyinto it. After
some moments they saw their own images at the
bottom of the crystal. The images gradually
ascended along the red line. Those of the other two
men rose to the middle, and then again descended,
but the presentment of the one who tells the story
continued to ascend until it reachedthe top before
going down The again. conjurerthen said that the
other two would die in the second year of the war ;
but the third would survive through hardshipsand
narrow escapes, and live to return home. As the
prophecy,so the event."
Crystalvision was one of the bases of the Aztec
faith,and Tescatlipoca,
their chief divinity,
was eminently
pre-
the god of crystalvision.
Among the Mayas the art was not only practised
from the earliest ages, but is still in universal use
throughout Yucatan to this day.
Daniel G. Brinton, the anthropologist, in his
*'
Essays of an Americanist/'fully describes the
''
practice,saying : There is scarcelya villagein
Yucatan without oneof these wonderful stones.''
'' "
Vice-Admiral Brine,in his American Indians
(1894),quotes the official report, at the beginningof
the last century, to the
Spanish Government of
Mexico, regardingthis practice. A medical friend
now here attendingone of our colleges, from Merida,
tells me that the zaztun (clearstone) is continually
consulted all through Yucatan, not only by the
natives,but by others.
The same practiceprevailedin prehistoric Peru,
even among the Incas, and by the savages also of
Southern Chile ; the Apaches of New Mexico and
Arizona also used it.
It is not a difiicult or
acquire. A. unusual art to
Goodrich-Freer,
of the Societyfor PsychicalResearch,
''
in her Essays in PsychicalResearch," relates that.
274 SPIRIT AND MATTER

in one of the eastern counties of England, she came

across a littlecolonyof half-a-dozen who had or more

made themselves adeptsin this art, having started it

"
almost accidentally.She says : These people had
no outside knowledge, or encouragement, or help
whatever, yet they have developedthe art of scrying
in all its branches " the externalisation of conscious
ideas images,or revivals of memory,
or and of in-
formation
unconsciouslyacquiredby thought trans-ference,
possiblyby clairvoyance.So much for the
reward of takingpains.*'
I will now refer to a more personalincident, which
is unpublished. A brother physicianin this city,a
member of the Societyfor PsychicalResearch, had
abrother killed at the battle of Antietam,in September
1862. After his death the bullet was secured,and the
doctor had a little morocco case made, and some-
times

carried it as a sort of relic. Two

three years or

ago, as most of us psychicalresearchers do, he

dropped in upon a well-known medium, who was in
Philadelphiafor few
days. They were
a entire
strangersto each other. After givingthe doctor such
information as she chanced to have, in which the
doctor's dead brother purportedto appearand identify
himself,justas he was leaving, in replyto a question
''
of the doctor's, she said, You have something about
you in your pocket in a leather case ; it is round ; it
is hard ; Eph. says it's his bullet." The dead
brother's name was Ephraim. Possibly this was
telepathic, but it was dramaticallyput, at all events,
and the doctor had forgottenall about the circum- stance,
when the medium turned it up. In fact,if
properlyunderstood,telepathy, which science is now
conceding,concedes the entire foundations of
spiritualism as againstany possible form of material-
ism.
If two consciousnesses at a distance from the
human forms which
they animate intelligent can hold
and thought, converse
intelligible with each other,
it is a mere matter of extension (as is gravitation),
and this is a questionfor observation and experiment
and not for dogmatism. If telepathy can reach across
a continent it may just as well reach the surviving
 PRACTICAL CASES CONTINUED 275
of the dead, and prove their existence.
spirits The
phenomena of crystalvision and planchette writing
are known from
the earhest ages, and among all
peoples. In China their system of
writingby com-
posite

characters in groups precludesthe easy use of

such instruments as a pencilmoving in contact with
paper, for it can only operate well for written
languages; the planchetteemployed in China is
described by Tcheng-Ki-Tong, of the Imperial
''
Chinese Legation in England, in his book Chin-
Chin'' (London, 1895),as follows: "

''
We have no want of literary gods. A largedish
is taken filled with sand, and then the two ends of a
curved stick of wood are moved over it. The, god
guidesthe points,and a number of acrostic sentences
and poems are the result, written in the sand. The
spirits of well-known literary men of bygone ages are
called for,and they are begged to attend the meeting,
and to give some specimens of their poetictalents.
Let me describe of these scenes.
one
''
The brush, after having moved about for some

time, announces that a literary god is approaching.

At once it beginsto trace out the followingquatrain: "

re (
Twilight covers half the mountains,
The tired birds return to their nests.
The stork,driven by the azure zephyr.
''
Conies down from heaven through the clouds.'

(Of course in Chinese the lines are rhymed.)

A long conversation is given by the author, with
a number of poems, concludingas follows : "

'' ''
Is it true that besides heaven, there is hell ?
"
Hell and heaven are in the minds of men "
one presents
re-

what is good,the other what is bad.'*

President W. A. P. Martin, D.D., LL.D., of the
''
Chinese ImperialUniversity, in his great work, The
Lore of Cathay,''
describes a modification of the above
instrument as follows :
"

**
Another medium is the fu lufiyan instrument
which may
we describe as a magic pen. It consists
of a vertical stick suspended like a pendulum from a
cross-bar. The bar is supported at each end by a
276 SPIRIT AND MATTER

votary of the genii,

care being taken that it shall rest
on the hand as freely as an oscillating enginedoes on
its bearings. A table is sprinkledwith meal ; and,
after beingproperlyinvoked, the spirit manifests his
presence by slightirregular motions of the pen or
pendulum, which leaves its trace in the meal. These
marks are decipheredby competent authorities, who
make known the response from the spirit world. This
will be recognised as an earlyform of planchette. In
the Far East, it has been in vogue for more than a
thousand years ; and there is as yet no signthat it
'
has had its days.' Not merely Taoists by profession,
but scholars, who call themselves Confucian,believe
in it with a more or less confiding faith. When they
resort to it with a serious purpose, they usuallyget
an answer which they accept as bona fide^ whether it
meet their wishes or oppose them. Often, however,
they call in the magic pen to supply diversion for the
late hours of a convivial party ; and in such cases,
they tell me, they are sometimes surprisedby the
result an
" invisible person evidentlyjoiningin the
festive circle,and solving or creating mysteries.
Scepticalas are the Chinese literati,
no one that I
have seen doubts the genuinenessof some of the
communications so obtained.*'
The above prefatoryto what
extracts I desire
are

to say about another series of phenomena, seemingly

connected (as are nearly all psychicalphenomena)
with each other at various pointsand divergentat
others. I think few persons familiar with the
ideographiccharacters Chinese literature,
used in
and carefully consideringthe appliancesand modus
operandiabove described, would be willing to assert
that fraud or deceptioncould be used and not re- cognised

by those sittingaround the table,or that

people so keen-witted and sceptical as the Chinese
cultured class would, for thousands of years, waste
their time in childish jugglinglike this,if it had no
serious basis. And I claim that the same is true of
the phenomena of ''Dowsing''so-called,
or ''Water-
finding,"
or, as the French sometimes have called it,
the use of the hydroscope,the latter being a mislead-
278 SPIRIT AND MATTER

labour nor expense spared in the collection

has been
of all previousauthorities, and in the prosecutionof
all original investigations requisitefor determining
the facts,and studyingand weighing the evidence to
account for the phenomena. The two reportstogether
cover more than 530 of the closely printedpages of
the proceedings, and constitute a mine of information
on this reallyimportant subject. 1 shall use only the
second and later report of Professor Barrett,and I can
quote only in the briefest possible manner what may
show to some extent the scope, means, and methods
employed.
Professor givesa list of the professional
Barrett
dowsers, known to him, in England and Wales. There
are thirty-fivein the list,who are employed profession-
ally,
''
and work for pay as professionals.No doubt,'*
'*

says the author, there are several others of whom I

have not heard, and there are, of course, in addition,
numbers of amateur dowsers, some of whom have
been remarkably successful.''
Anyone reading this work of Professor Barrett's
will discover that the amateur dowsers must far out-
number
the professionals, these being those who do
not advertise and work for pay. I know that this
is so in America, of the best water-finders
and some

are only known privately and in their own hoods.

neighbour-
I think the proportionof those capable of
acquiringthis art is at least as great as in the case of
those who can learn crystalvision.
One of the principal inhibitions in acquiringthe
''
art of dowsing, I think, is in a sort of stage-
"
fright when undertakingexperiments. If they see
another the art, and
practising then have this dowser
hold or touch the amateur's wrists while the latter
holds the forked or curved stick
(of which Professor
Barrett mentions numerous instances),the instru-
ment
will work at second-hand, as it were, and the
confidence and method thus acquired will shortly
lead to successful in
practice, the amateur's hands
alone. The first success is surprisingenough to
startle any amateur, as is also the case with automatic
writing.
 PRACTICAL CASES CONTINUED 279
While success does not attend everyexperiment
of the
water-finders,yet the proponderance of
successes over failures,beyond what chance could
possiblyaccount for,determines the of
authenticity
the phenomena.
Andthese failures themselves may not reallybe
failures in many cases, for,as we do not fullyunder-
stand
the factors employed to produce the visible
results,
nor the conditions and possible prohibitions
encountered, we cannot determine what inhibitory
factors may not interfere with what otherwise would
prove successful. A single ray of invisible lightfrom
the ultra-visible end of the spectrum will make the
taking or development of a photographicnegativea
failure, and, as I have mentioned elsewhere,of the
mirage, invisible reflections from invisible planes of
irregularly heated air will present a scene which has
often misled travellers, or armies indeed, from suc-cessful

''water-finding,'' in plain view, to failures,

often involving loss of life. It is a strong corrobora-
tion
of the genuinenessof the dowser's art that,as
is well known, one dowser followinganother later on
will nearly always mark the same exact spots. The
eminent French anthropologist, Professor Gabriel De
Mortillet, confirms this fact ; as quoted by Professor
Barrett,he says :
''
This much, however, is certain,which I can
affirm as the result of experience,that the point
chosen by one diviner will also be chosen by others
brought from a distance,and completely ignorantof
the precedingexperiments. A real phenomenon to
study does therefore exist."
As an example of the methods and results of these
water-finders, I quote the followingfrom a letter in

Barrett's report of Montgomerie " Company

(Limited),Haddington.
*'
Previous to our communicating with Mr Gataker
we had decided to put down an artesian bore at a

different part of our ground. On arrival Mr Gataker

started over the ground at a fair speed with the palms
of his hands towards the earth. After proceeding
some distance he was able to locate a springat the
 28o SPIRIT AND MATTER

end of mailings. He then proceeded over a

our new

strawberry field belonging to us, and at about 70

yards from where he located the firstspringhe located
another. He guaranteed that from either of those
springswe would get a supply of about 20,000 gallons
per day at a depth of from 100 ft. to 150 ft. We put
down a 4-inchbore at the first spring, and are pleased
to say that at a depth of 102 ft. we are gettinga
supply of about 100,000 gallonsper day, and the
water is coming up with great force."
This boringpassedthrough the following strata :
"
20 ft. sand and gravel; 6 ft. boulder clay; 19 ft.
fireclay ; 45 ft. sandstone and what are called
" ''
faikes in alternate layers; then 8 ft. marl ; and
finallysandstone to depth of bore, at 103 ft. The
bore hole is about 100 ft. above sea level. A firm
''
near by, which bored without the aid of a water-
" ''
finder sunk to a depth of 660 ft. and failing
to
find water have had to abandon the bore." From a

report of the Cheltenham Steam Laundry, in 1896,

embraced in Professor Barrett's second report,I quote
the with
following, reference to the technique
of the
process : "

''
Taking one of his small,slender twigs,he held
it in front of him with his arms lowered and one end of
itineachhand,sothattheangle of the fork pointedvery
slightlydownwards, about three feet from the ground.
Thus he commenced to walk slowlyin a straight line
across the field. Suddenly the twig gave a turn in
the operator'shands, began to revolve,and continued
to do so while he remained within the area in which
* '
he experienced the shock of water. The two
directors attempted to stay the revolvingmotion of
the twig while the operator carried it over the affected
area, but though each seized one end of it,they could
not do so, the ends of the twig, in fact, slightly
lacerating as it turned
their fingers in resistance to all
the pressure they could employ. Similar results were
obtained with the wire. Then Dr Car dew walked
across the affected
spot with the twig in his hands,
but the simple apparatus remained quitestationary
until Mr Chesterman (the operator) placed his
 PRACTICAL CASES CONTINUED 281

hands on the doctor's wrists,when it began to

revolve/'
Following the above is a report of Lieutenant-
Colonel Taylor. A dowser, Mr Tompkins, had
marked some points for borings,and later on Mr
Chesterman, who was in the neighbourhood, was
asked by Colonel Taylorif he would go into his garden
and try to locate a stream found by Mr Tompkins.
He kindly consented,but it was quite a dark night
*'
when they went out, but it made no difference.'*
He then crossed the ground alreadygone over by his
'*
predecessor, and found the rod turn at the pointg
when he said he was crossinga stream. I put down
my hand to mark the placewith a peg when it came
into contact with the end of the peg I had previously
put in to mark the spot Tompkins had selected. It
was much too dark for either of us to see the pegs even
if we had searched for them."
The Reverend Father Roe, of County Kilkenny,
seekinga water-supplyfor the convent at Thomas-

town, employed Mr Wills,the partner of Mr Gataker,

to come over to Ireland. Looking at the site already
selected,and tryinghis rod, he advised its abandon- ment,
as there was only a very small ripple,and at
''
great depth. He then went over the whole field
with his rod and marked out two or three placeswhere
an abundant supply of water could be obtained,but
selected a rather elevated spot in preferenceto the
others. He said we would most certainly get water
at about 80 ft. and so many gallonsper hour."
By a singularcoincidence Mr Jones, another
dowser, came, accompanied by a mutual friend,an
inquirer, and Jones was invited to have a try also,
with his rod. As a result.Father Roe says, he ''

pointed out the exact spot^ and traced out the water
in the same line as Mr Wills had done. They were
of
quiteindependent one another,and Mr Jones knew
nothing about the coming of the English dowser, or
what he had alreadydone. Mr Jones could not tell
thejdepth,nor the quantity,etc.,but he was certain
there was a strong current of water. I noticed in the
operationswhen they came over the placeswhere
282 SPIRIT AND MATTER

water could be found, Mr Wills* rod jumped up and

Mr Jones' down''
This last fact has a certain
significancein the con-
sideration

of the subject. At 75 ft.,boring through

rock,water was struck in sufficient quantity,and the
boring was discontinued,largelyon account of in-
terference
by water coming in. Father Roe con- cludes
**
his letter I may
as add that I am
follows :
"

now convinced that the diviningrod is no sham, but

genuine,and I cannot explainits influence on some
susceptiblepeople when they come over or near

water."
In the Pontyberim experiments,next narrated,
two amateurs fixed upon the same spot. In this case

one was the contractor, while the other locally

was
known as a dowser. After Mr Young got through
with his experimentshe asked the contractor himself,
Mr WiUiams, to take a try with the rod. ''This he
did and to his surpriseMr Williams found the rod
moved vigorously,and apparentlyspontaneouslyat
the same placefound by Mr Young.'' Further test
experimentswere carried out by these partiesand the
facts were corroborated.
Mr F. Napier Denison reports experiments con-
ducted

in 1898 with a number of persons. He says,

*'
Out of the
twelve persons who tried the above
experiments,two had the power well developed,two
slightly,while the remainingeightalmost nil. When
the weaker members used a rod over four feet long,
then sHght muscular action was clearlyshown by the
far end of the rod turningdown. At the end of ...

the experiments Mr Harris' hands were considerably

blistered."
In the Wight experimentsnear Shanklin,
Isle of
Mr MulUns, the dowser, was employed subsequent to
large expendituresby enginecTson geologicaland
topographicaldata. Within 100 yds. of one of
Mulhns' marks a well was dug and bored by the
Local Board to a depth of nearly 500 ft. with no

water.
Two amateur dowsers also located two wells
within 50 yds. of this spot where the Local Board
 J
PRACTICAL CASES CONTINUED 283
had failed. All these three wells,when sunk to very
moderate depths,gave ample supplies.Several ex-
am.plesare given in Professor Barrett's reports of
dowsers' pegs put down almost contiguousto deep
dry wells,and water was found in great quantities
beneath these pegs, and alongsideor often directly
between these useless holes,and at one-third or one-
half their depth. That it is not merely water which
affects the dowser with that peculiar'' shock " and
induces the rod or forked branch to turn, or to be
turned, is shown by the fact that many persons are
similarly affected by certain oils, metals,etc.,and in
some cases by other influences, one being the cele-
brated
case of Jacques Ay mar, who pursued a
murderer, by its means, for hundreds of miles,and
secured his arrest ; also by the Bleton phenomena,
and, in fact,by authentic narratives,if anything
either inside or outside of science is authentic,
within the knowledge of many persons of high
repute.
'*
Lang, in his
Andrew Making of Religion"
(London, 1898), in discussing Professor Barrett's
''
first report on the diviningrod, says, Professor
Barrett givesabout one hundred and fifty cases, in
which he was onlyable to discover, on good authority,
twelve failures."
'*
A. in her
Goodrich-Freer, Essays in Psychical
"
Research (London, 1899),in discussingthis sub-
ject,
says :
*'
Certainly,to judge from the extent of the
claims of the various professionaldowsers and,
' '

still more important,the testimonials as to their

success from well-known landed proprietors who have
employed them, we may gather that, whatever be
the explanationof the fact, the waterfinder has
his
justified existence."
I have given considerable space to this subject,
because it seems to me that this art,or
likely faculty,
or practiceis connected at many pointswith whole
ranges of other faculties in such wise that it will afford
a pointd'appuiby which these may be studied far
more advantageouslythan from any other now at
284 SPIRIT AND MATTER

hand. The question which, hence, arises is what "

is the explanationof this art or faculty?

It is only recently,of course, that any intelligible
explanationhas been possible, only,in fact,since the
establishment of the entityof the subconscious partment
de-
of the
mind, and its control over the surface-
consciousness,and its connections,beyond our parent
ap-
physicallimits.
Professor Barrett, after enumerating several
attempted explanations (i) various hints which
"

have been unconsciouslyabsorbed by the operator ;

(2) hyperaestheticdiscernment of surface signs;
and (3) some kind of transcendent discernment
possessedby his subconscious self,of this latter,
says :
'*
For my own part, I
disposedto think that
am

this last cause, though less acceptableto science, will

ultimatelybe found the true explanationof the more
strikingsuccesses of a good dowser.'*
'*
He adds,later,in conclusion : This subconscious
*
perceptivepower, commonly called clairvoyance,'
may provisionally be taken as the explanation of those
successes of the dowser which are inexplicableon
any grounds at present known to science.'*
The undoubted fact that in many, if not most,
of these cases the dowsers were not only able to locate
the to approximate its depth,
water, but very closely
quantity,and, in manyquality,takes it
cases, its
out of the category, in my opinion,of simple
subconscious perceptionor fueling. These factors can
only be explainedin analogy with such cases of crystal
vision,numerous and familiar enough, in which one
sees definite numbers, colours,actions,etc.,in distant
countries,as observations among soldiers in India,
or a sick officer amid his surroundingslyingon the
deck of a vessel in the Suez Canal, as in some of Miss
Freer 's cases. Such cases are not unusual in vanced
ad-
hypnosis (so-called,but very badly called), .

as in some of Charcot's experiments,where the j

hypnotised patient diagnosticatedand located an i
internal organic disease in an unknown subject\
hundreds of miles distant. Such were the narrated ^
286 SPIRIT AND MATTER

furniture,pictures,etc. gentleman then an- The

nounced

that the boy was entirelywrong, as the

house had been vacant for some time At this a gentle-
man .

at the other side of the room stated, for Mr

Alderman's that he lived next door, and that
benefit,
the boy's description was correct as itwas last furnished.
This,if telepathic, must have been of a very complex
type of telepathy. Another case, which seems to
exclude telepathy,was when he sent the boy to get
the number of the room at acertain hotel at which a

friend was stopping. He brought it back correctly,

and said he went to the room, and he then described
its contents, but found no one there. Again, sent
back to learn where
the friend then was, he returned,
''
statingthat the clerk had said, He went out about
half past seven," which was afterwards found to be
correct.
Mr Alderman subjectsclaimed to
stated that his
see the objectsjustas though in a normal way ; they
could not see the future,but saw past objectsand
''
events ; one said he saw it as it came around," or
apparently, as Mr Alderman thought,as in a revolving

panorama. On one occasion the experimenterwas

desired by a gentleman present to send the boy's
projectionto Marine City,where were a number of
salt-wells. He did so, described the pump and tubes,
and then was directed to follow the latter down into
the earth tothe end. At the first attempt he got
switched off,after going a short distance into the
ground. The second time he went down, saying he
" ''
guessed he was down 800 ft.,"and that there
was a channel broader and higher than the parlour
he was in (30 ft. by 12
ft.)that ran to the end of the
tube, the strainer of which was more or less covered
with particles. The surroundingsappeared to him as
being blue,lightblue. The lengthof the channel he
could not determine, as there was a turn in it.
Directed togo to the turn and report further,he
repliedthat he had done so, and found another turn,
in fact,that the channel was a long one and crooked,
resemblinga river."
The statement follows that on awakening the boy
 PRACTICAL CASES CONTINUED 287
began to expectorate, as though he had something
disagreeable in his mouth. The sympathy of one of
the ladies present was soon aroused,however, and in
answer to their queriesas to what troubled him, he
'*
said with some feeling, You have been puttingsalt
in my mouth/'
Mr Sherman's conclusion,which seems to be in
accordance the facts (unlessit be
with desired to
substitute the subconscious with power to act,for the
** '*
word soul which is used in so many and such
various senses)is : "

''
The soul can body as an individual
leave the
intelligence, and while thus projectedit has all the
perceptivefaculties of the physicalorganism and
mind includingsight,hearing,tasting, smellingand
feeling."
There is also,I may add, a connectinglink in such
cases connectingthis projectedintelligence with the
normal self and its normal consciousness, justas is the
case in crystal vision, which I have described as a sort
of trick of the normal consciousness by which it con-
nects

up with the subconscious.

Thisclairvoyanceof the absent is very common in
vision,even extendingto far-distant countries.
crystal
It also sometimes extends to the; vision of those
already dead. In a delightful book, not generally
*'
known, Memorials of a Southern Planter (1888),
''

being a biography of Thomas S. G. Dabney, who

resided on a largeplantation south of Vicksburg and
Jackson, Miss.,the earnest and loving writer,his
daughter,mentions a patheticincident of this sort of
clairvoyance.Speaking of her two young brothers
'*
she says, James died first, and Sophia (her sister
and their mother), dreading the effect on Thomas,
allowed no one to tell him that his playfellowwas
gone. In dying, Thomas called out, Oh, I see Jimmy. '

' ''
Oh, gold all around ! So beautiful !
Of course these perceptions are related to those of
fascination, which has often been denied by closet
naturalists. I have myselfseen many such instances
among animals, but I reproduce a graphic account
from Mrs McHatton-Ripley's littlebook of her ex-
288 SPIRIT AND MATTER

periencesin the same war entitled ''From Flag to

''
Flag (1889). The incident occurred duringher flight
from the dying Confederacy,with her husband, an
officer,
on the southern bank of the Rio Grande, in
Mexico.
" "
On
the first day,''
she says, drove slowly as we

along this monotonous countryroad, my husband's

watchful eye perceived,
in a small openingby the side
of the ambulance, a huge rattlesnake coiled,with
head erect,forked tongue, and glistening
eyes, follow-
ing
in an almost motion
imperceptible the fitfulefforts
of a largefrog vainlytryingto get out of his way.
The snake had fastened his eyes on the eyes of the
frog; the poor creature even could not wink, he could
not escape the fascinatinggaze. Turning his body,
though not his head, he would make a pitiful little
squeak and a desperateeffort to jump ; but the
wretched frog
jump backward.could Everynot
motion he made was accompanied by corresponding
a

motion of the wily serpent. So intent were they that

we alightedfrom the vehicle,and Mr Dodds stood near
with pistolin hand ; neither the snake nor the frog
seemed to have consciousness of the presence of any
other object than the one upon which its eyes were
fixed. At last the head of the serpent slowly ap-
proached
nearer and
poor nearer its victim, the
creature one made that sounded
despairingcroak
almost human in its agony, and leaped into the full
distended jaws of the rattlesnake ! At the same
instant the watchful Mr Dodds fired his pistolwith
such aim
that the vertebrae was
accurate struck close
to the head, the jaws suddenly relaxed and fell open,
and out sprang Mr Frog ! If ever a frogmade haste
to get away that frogwas the one. He was out of his
enchantment, out of the jaws of death,and out of our

sightin an instant. The thirteen rattles that tipped

the tail of that snake
enterprising remained in my
possession for many years, a memento of the incident."
Lord Wolseley,himself a great commander, says
"
of this sort of faculty. This is the influence which
men, with what I may term great electricalpower in
their nature, have exercised in war. Caesar,Marl-
 PRACTICAL CASES CONTINUED 289
borough, Napoleon, Sir Charles Napier, and many
others I could name, possessedit largely.The current
passed from them into all around, creatinggreat thusiasm
en-

in all ranks far and near and often making

heroes of men whose mothers and fathers even had
never them
regarded light. This feelingis
in that
an addition of at least 50 per cent, of strengthand
energy to the army where it exists.''
Of course electricalpower is here only used as a
*'
rough analogy,like animalmagnetism.'* Emerson
'*
characterised it more saying, A river of
accurately,
command runs down from
the eyes of some men, and
the reason why we feel one man's presence and not
another's is as simple as gravity; and this natural
force is no more to be withstood than any other
natural force."
Allied with phenomena of the order above de- ii #^#V
''
scribed are those of so-called spiritrappings." .

With these again are connected whole series of

physicalmanifestations involvingtelepathic
messages
or communications clearlysupernormal, and the
originof which has formed the subject-matterof much
of this book. In order to establish the evidential
value of these experiments,so as to form a sound
basis for investigationand judgment, it is necessary
that the descriptionshould be in the words of those
who are capable,honest and scientific. Many of
the phenomena contained in this Fourth Part of the
present book are my own personally, or verified by
myself,and it is obviouslyso because they are con- clusive

evidence to me, as I am accustomed, from my

practiceas chemist and physician,and expert in
patent litigation in the courts for the past thirty
years, to sift and weigh evidence,and to conduct in- vestigations
and experiments in a strictly scientific
manner. But this evidence, to others,can only have
the weight which the book itselfhas, so that it is well,
in corroborative way, to secure
a the evidence of men
of science whose statements upon other like scientific
subjects are received with respect, and whose scientific
judgments stand unimpeached.
In citingsuch statements as in the case of Sir
290 SPIRIT AND MATTER

William Crookes,Sir Oliver Lodge, Professor Barrett,

and others,I have given such brief information of
these men will recall to the reader their
of science as

along these lines,in addition

specialqualifications
to their generalrepute in the scientific world.
In such wise I have alreadyreferred to Professor
Augustus De Morgan, but in citingthe case which
follows,from his own
pen, something I desire to say
further of this remarkable
mathematician, author,
man of science and
of sound judgment.
'' ''
In Marmery^s Progress of Science (London,
1895) De Morgan's name appears with that of
Newton, among six, as England's contribution in
mathematics to the list of world-famous names in
''
science ; and, in the text,says, De Morgan effected
a great generalisation, for his double algebrais true,
not only of space relations,but of forces,"etc.
etc.
''
In
Jevons' Principles of Science,"from which I
have already quoted several times, De Morgan is
indexed as authority under many headings, as
Negative Terms, Aristotle's Logic,Relatives,Logical
Universe, Complex Propositions,Contraposition,
NumericallyDefinite Reasoning,Probability, ments
Experi-
in Probability,Probability of Inference,
Mathematical Tables, Personal Error. His works
on Probability, Apparent Sequence, Sub-equality,
Rule of Approximation,Negative Areas, Generalisa-
tion,
Double Algebra, Extensions of Algebra, etc.
etc. Taking a singleextract from the text, Jevons
*'

says, The best popular, and at the same time

profound English work on the subject(Theory of
'
Probabilities) is De Morgan's Essay on Probabilities
and on their Applicationto Life Contingencies and
"
Insurance Offices.'
Such a man will be, least of all men, deluded by
fancy,and most of all be guided by strong common-
sense. If to this be added sterlinghonesty and fear-
lessness,
such a man's statements, made after full in-
vestigati
should be accorded the same respect and
acceptance as his other writings have received,
throughout the whole scientificworld.
 PRACTICAL CASES CONTINUED 291
His own attitude is shown by the following
extract : "

''
reprobateis,not the wariness which
What I
widens and lengthensinquiry,but the assumption
which prevents or narrows it ; the imposturetheory,
which frequentlyinfers imposturefrom the assumed
impossibilityof the phenomena asserted,and then
allegesimposture against the examination of the
evidence/'
''
In the
prefaceto his wife's book, From Matter
to Spirit," from which I shall quote later on, he refers
to many experimentsof his own along these lines of
psychology,and among others narrates the following
experimentthe latter part of which, it appears to me,
is beyond refutation on any normal basis. The fact
that the medium's feet were watched by those present,
and that the significant conclusion occurred while
she was standing and talkingat another table and
**
taking refreshment," shows, of course, that the
experimentwas conducted in a lightedroom, as such
experimentsalways are, so far as I know or have
learned.
The
narrative,from the hand of Professor De
Morgan, follows.
''
Ten years ago, Mrs Hayden, the well-known
American medium, came
my house alone.
to The
sittingbegan immediately after her arrival. Eight
or nine
persons were present, of all ages, and of all
degrees belief and
of unbelief in the whole thingbeing
imposture. The raps began in the usual way. They
were to my ear clean,clear,faint sounds, such as
would be said to ringyhad they lasted. I likened
them at the time to the noise which the ends of
would
knitting-needles dropped from a
make, if
small distance upon a marble slab and instantly
checked by a damper of some kind ; and subsequent
trial showed that my descriptionwas tolerably
accurate. I never had the good luck to hear those
exploitsof Latin muscles,and small kickingdone on
the legof a table by machinery,which have been pro- posed
as the causes of these raps ; but the noises I
did hear were such as I feel quiteunable to impute to
292 SPIRIT AND MATTER

either source, even on the supposition of imposture.

Mrs Hayden was seated at some distance from the

table, and her feet were watched by their behevers

until faith pedalismin slowly evaporated. At a

late period in the evening, after nearly three hours of

experiment, Mrs Hayden having risen, and talking at

another table while taking refreshment, a child
'
suddenly called out, will all the spirits who have
'
been here this evening rap together ? The words

were no sooner uttered than a hailstorm of knitting-

needles was heard, crowded into certainly less than

seconds big needle sounds of the and
two ; the men,
the little ones of the women and children, being clearly
distinguishable, but perfectly disorderly in their

arrival/'
Then appears a full description of the
phenomena
which had occurred, many of the questions being
asked mentally, and answered audibly to all (a
common by the way) he afterwards
occurrence, ;
''
narrated the occurrence to a sceptical friend, a man

of ologies and ometers both,*' who believed the whole

to be a clever imposture, but concluded it to be very

singular, and decided to go alone to Mrs Hayden,
which he did. He took his alphabet behind a large
''
folding screen, asking his questions by the alphabet
and a pencil, as well as receiving the answers. No

except himself and Mrs Hayden were in the

person
room. The '
spirit
'
who came to him was one whose

unfortunate death was fully detailed, in the usual

way. My friend told me that he was 'awestruck/

and had nearly forgotten all his precautions."
294 SPIRIT AND MATTER

in which
pistonfirelighter, a pistonstruck down by
the hand, in a closed cylinder,ignitesa bunch of
tinder at the bottom with which the operator lights
his pipe, or kindles a fire.
It is the ether of space which carries the message,
but the ether itself does not move along. If one lays
a row of billiard balls againsteach other,and strikes
the first, the last one fliesoff and the interveningones

remain still.
But wirelesstelegraphy demands a conscious
message to start with, and this it will deliver. The
line is not self-conscious, or else a message started
" ''
with Peace: has been declared might end up with
an original poem on the evening star.
And so it is of telepathy; this requires a conscious

starter,and is received as an intelligible message.

And this difficulty in interpreting so-called spirit
messages was not understood priorto the knowledge
of the transmission of conscious telepathy, and, what
is stillmore important,the vast scope and dramatic
power of the subconscious sender. This has made
unevidential much of the communications long ago
received as evidence of spiritreturn,but by no means
all.
We are now so cautious,that if there is any
that
possibility the have
message
may been consciously
sub-
and telepathically received by the medium
from any terrestrialsource, or from the sitter who sits
with the medium to receive the message, we now

rejectthis as non-evidential ; but this does not mand

de-
that
messagethe itself may not have been
genuinely received from the conscious spiritwhich
purports to send it ; it merelyrequiresus to render
*'
the Scotch verdict, not proven.''
But even the old records we find plentyof
among
cases, and particularly isolated remarks and the chance
''
snatches thrust in by inter]ectors,''and other bits
totallyunknown to all persons living, in which pathy
tele-
from the livingcan by no means suffice,in
which, in fact,it has no possibleplace,and this dence
evi-
is as good to-day as it ever was.

Not regardingthe fact that long before Hodgson's

 EXPERIMENTS CONTINUED 295
death all this was well
known, not only to Dr
Hodgson but to his sitter,and carefullyguarded
against,I will instance two cases which I have scribed
de-
later on ; those of Professor Bayley through
Mrs Piper,in which his sister and Professor Newbold
figured. I have examined these
manuscriptrecords,
and am acquaintedwith, all the parties. In the first
case Dr Bayley's sittingwas interruptedby what
purportedto be the spirit of his sister, an inter] ector,
'* "
who suddenlyasked, How is Rial ? But Mrs Piper
unconsciously hearingthe question, made an anagram
of the name, in writingit,as is common with typists
''
taking down from dictation, and asked, How is
''
Lari ? In the manuscript the last letters are run
together at first sight,and Dr Bayley, reading it,
'' ''
said,meaning the word, Is it lame ? The sister
'' '*
suddenlycried, Is she lame ? thinkingthat Bayley
referred to her stillliving daughter,named Rial.
Now here Dr Bayley could not have telepathically
influenced Mrs Piper,nor could any other living person
or thing ; it was a simple duplex blunder, and the
questionwhich followed Dr Bayley'scould only have
come from someone who was no longerliving pre- sumably "

''
the one who signedthe firstquestion sister/'
The next instance is in the communication,through
Mrs Piper,also to Dr Bayley,from Hodgson, in which
he narrated a conversation which he had had, prior
to his death, with Professor Newbold of the Society
for PsychicalResearch (as is Professor Bayley) and
which Hodgson asked Bayley to have Newbold verify.
Hodgson, communicating,said that it occurred on the
beach at Nantasket, while, in Newbold's reply to
Bayley's letter of inquirythe facts were all stated
as correct, exceptingthat the conversation,while it
commenced during the time when they were sitting
on the beach, was for the most part continued on the
steam vessel bringingthem back to Boston. Had
Newbold communicated this telepathicallyto
Mrs Piper,he would have stated this fact,and no
other livingperson knew it. But if it was Hodgson
himself who influenced the automatist, Mrs Piper,
after his death, then the circumstances fall into place
296 SPIRIT AND MATTER

naturally,for Nantasket old

Hodgson, and
was to
his attention would be givento the conversation, while
it was new to Newbold, who would naturallypay
more attention to the surroundings, as it is a beautiful

and novel watering-place.

The Society for Psychical Research has made
every effort to exclude telepathy from the living,
and many hundreds of pages of its recent Proceedings
have been devoted to elaborate reports of its work
along these lines,and in comments upon them at its
various meetings,and the work is still being con-
tinued.

I can better to illustratethis new

do no work than
to quote the followingfrom the article entitled
" '
Some New Facts of our Survival of Death,' by John
W. Graham, M.A., Principalof Dalton Hall, Uni-
versity
Manchester, and publishedin The Hibbert
of
Journal (Editor,Oxford, and Sub-editor Cambridge,
England).
I make as brief extracts as the circumstances will
justify.
''It generallyknown
is that thirty years ago
Frederic W. H. Myers, one of the greatestmen of our
generation, combining as he did extraordinary faculty
as a man of letters and a man of science with high
academic standing and strong spiritualintuition,
determined to devote the rest of his life to the investi-
gation
of
group a of phenomena of which no scientific
explanation had yet been found. He found in
Edmund Gurney a colleagueof singularlikeminded-
ness, extensive leisure, and scientific
and good literary
powers, and on the initiative of Professor Barrett
of Dublin, the Societyfor PsychicalResearch was

launched in 1881. Dr Richard Hodgson, an acute and

scepticalthinker,who was at that time an expert in
Herbert Spencer'sphilosophy and a man of much
practicalwit, shortly joined the band, and it has
worked on under the constant play of showers of
scepticalcriticism from Mrs Sidgwick and Mr F.
Podmore. It has issued twenty-two volumes of
Proceedingsand thirteen volumes of Journal,and
'
there have been produced the great work Phantasms
 EXPERIMENTS CONTINUED 297
*
of the Living and the stillgreaterwork of F. W. H.
Myers, publishedafter his death under the title of
^
Human Personality.'Other subsidiaryliterature has
flowed from other pens. Then in succession came the
deaths of Gurney, Sidgwick, Myers, and Hodgson.
But this is a work which, if there is anything in it,
may perhaps be carried on from both sides of the
chasm of death ; and for the past five years, amid
many bogus imitations,there appears to have come

a stream of communications from the departed

leaders,which I venture to claim has now reached
evidential force and volume.
''
Communications have to pass through a
medium's hand or voice ; she has to write or to speak ;
how are we to know that the communication does
not come from some subliminal part of herself,
or by
thought transference from someone else on earth ?
If it be accepted,as it is accepted,
that the subliminal
self of each of us may carry on communication with
the subliminal self of another without our knowledge
or the other's knowledge, and that anythingthat is in
anyone else's mind may conceivably,by stretching
improbabilities,be thus transferred to the medium's
mind, it will be seen difficult it is to choose
how
material which will be evidence of a communication
from the departed.
*'
Myers and his friends recommended when they
were here that we should all write in a sealed envelope
some word, or which
fact,or allusion, we should leave
behind us in the hands of a trusted friend,hoping
that if we were able to tell the contents of the envel-
ope
from the other side before the
envelope itself
was opened, that a would constitute
proof of our
survival. But it appears as though accidental, merely
superficial knowledge of that kind rarely survives
into the memory of the next life, and no such experi-
ment
has yet been successful except a remote one
in America many years ago. Myers, therefore,the
initiator as ever of new work, conceived the idea
about two years after his death that is at least what
"

purports to have happened ^that he would try to give

"

through two or more different mediums communica-

298 SPIRIT AND MATTER

tions which make no sense in isolation,but which

dovetail into one another, and show an independent
mind behind them both ; the communications to the
two or more mediums
beingso different that it would
be plainthat telepathyhad not taken place between
them. The mediums used have been Mrs Piper,the
experiencedlady who has worked so long with Dr
Hodgson at Boston, and whose communications have
already given such strong evidence of survival as to
convince those who
most of
have studied them ;
Mrs the wife of Dr Verrall of Cambridge,
Verrall,
her daughter Miss Verrall,Mrs Thompson, and the
Anglo-Indianlady who goes under the name of Mrs
Holland. Three parts of the Proceedings,dealing
chieflywith scriptof Mrs Verrall,
the Mrs Holland,
and Mrs Piper respectively, have been published
(Partsliii., Iv. and Ivii.).It is almost impossible to
give in a brief form an intelligible account of experi-
ments
which are so complicated and which depend
upon detail for their value,but I will here attempt
a summary of one from Part Ivii., e dited by Mr
Piddington which I will call Calm in Tennyson and
Plotinus'' (The summary which follows is too long
to quote here. The conclusion of Principal Graham's
article is as follows.)
'*
If the curious reader wants to know what news

of our by this revelation,

life hereafter is vouchsafed
the best answer is to exhort to patienceand to be
' ' ' '
cautious in statement. Myers and Hodgson
declare that they are very much more alive than they
were on earth, that they are not reallydreaming,
that they would not desire to come back again,and
that they are still, nevertheless,in possessionof
much at any rate of the memories and attachments
of earth ; they say that they are still almost
as far as we are from the innermost Presence
and Counsel of God, but they confirm the claims
and sanctions life. They state that a
of the
religious
periodof unconsciousness,varying in length,super-venes
upon death a periodunusuallyprolongedin
"

Myers' case ; and that after a few years say half- "

a-dozen the spirit

" moves in its development too far
 EXPERIMENTS CONTINUED 299
from earth life to have any further communication
with it. Doubtless there are numerous exceptionsto
this ; and we gatherthat Myers himself is voluntarily
stayingnear us for the sake of the service of our

faith/'
In The Journal of the Societyfor PsychicalRe-
search
for December 1908 is publishedan address by
Sir Oliver Lodge to the Dublin Section S.P.R., in
connection with the visit of the British Association for
the Advancement of Science, which the speaker was
then attending. From this address I select the few
closingparagraphs, referring
to the cross-correspon-
dences
described above by PrincipalGraham.
''
These are among the best evidence for a separate
'
and peculiarly Myers *-like which
intelligence we

have yet obtained. It is not of course complete,but

it is singularly
good. We hope yet to reach a scientific
demonstration of a future life. It is true, as we are

often assured, that is not

such a demonstration
since faith is independent of it.
requiredin religion,
But faith can be strengthened, even in the religious
mind ; while, in the mind which is more purely
intellectual some such demonstration is increasingly
called for. It is enough to know that we are progress-
ing
at a sufficiently
rapid rate. We need not be in
haste ; we may possess our souls in patience.
''
We need not be in a hurry either. Our boat is
coming in. I believe that a new area of intelligent
and
critical acceptance is pending for the work we have in
hand."
Sceptics,and in many cases those who are not
sceptics, in endeavouringto explainaway evidence
for the supernormal,after conscious fraud has been
eliminated,place great reliance on what they call
''malobservation,'' and ''lapse of memory.*' These
are elements to be carefully considered,but their
importancehas been greatlyoverestimated.
As a matter of fact,if malobservation and lapse
of memory had the scope and importance thus
attributed to them, the whole system of jurisprudence
would fall to the ground, and all witnesses would be
discredited a priori. But every judge, and every
300 SPIRIT AND MATTER

lawyer,and every intelligent

juryman knows that this
is by no means the case.
In certain technical matters involvinglack of
attention, malobservation is often fatal to the truth.
For example, prestidigitators deceive in their
mechanical manipulations in nearly all cases by
substitution, and that alone.
They attract the attention for an instant to some- thing

of
apparentlycapable deception, b ut not so in
reality, at the time,and under the cover of this with-
drawal
of attention substitute one objectfor another
without the cognisanceof the observer.
So in ventriloquism,the operator attracts the
attention to a certain box or figure, and then the voice
is imputed to that box or figure.
But malobservation could not apply,in the former
case, to what was carefullyobserved, nor, in the
latter case, to what the voice said,or whether there
was avoice at all.
It is on the fact that while memory, when defective,
may drop out essential features,but will never troduce
in-
new features,unless tampered with,that our
whole system of jurisprudenceis based. The old
method of torture to wring the truth from reluctant
witnesses was based on fact that the
the witnesses
had the truth ; that it failed in so many cases was

simply due to the fact that the torture was a ing,

tamper-
and the testimonythen givenwas mixed
up with
deliberate lies to bridgelacuna,or to protect those in
peril.
If thechargeof malobservation (asmade against
the validity of testimony,where properlyput, as it
must be to be valid)is to the effect that malobserva-
tion
is deliberate falsification,the true force of the
objectionwould be seen, and it would be repudiated
at once. Human testimony is good, and the truth
can be wrung, by judiciouscross-examination,even
out of reluctant witnesses. If this is not true, then
the whole fabric of human lifeis not worth a farthing,
and the only reliable peopleare the deaf and dumb,
even if these are so.
So of Miss Freer's coming across the little East
302 SPIRIT AND MATTER

of Modern Mexico for March 1906, the following

occurs, showing powerful hold which
the this old
tradition stillhas on a whole population: "

''
According to tradition, Valladolid has been the
theatre of remarkable events. It is asserted that the
place was long haunted by a demon of the worst
character,which even now is spoken of with bated
breath,as El Demonio Parlero,because he held nightly
discourse with any who chose to questionhim, answer-
ing

in the voice of a parrot."

*' "
He took to throwingstones,'* says Stephens, in
garrets,and eggs at the women and girls.'' Then he
played the cura a trick,and afterwards told about it ;
he began slandering people,and got the whole town
at swords' points; the church forbade the peopleto
talk to him, when the demonio took to weeping and
complaining; then he made more noise than ever^
and took to burning houses, when the cura finally
drove him of town."
out
But he carried on his incendiary
operations through
the surroundingcountry, flames scattered lightnings
which set other placesa-fire, two or three houses at
once, until finallythe church authorities drove him
away, when he returned to Valladolid, and resumed
until by
his old practices, puttingcrosses on all the
hills he was made to disappear.
As this narrative stands alone among the records
of these particularpeople, and whole
towns and
neighbourhoods were concerned, and the case was

investigated by experts, and embodied in the church

records,and as it is still told of with bated breath
more than three hundred years afterwards, and,
especially as it conforms to poltergeist narratives else-
where
throughoutthe world, I am satisfiedthe narra- tive

had a substantial basis of fact, and I am convinced

that while fraud might have produced many of the
effects, coincidence cannot explainthe identityof the
case with like phenomena occurring among many other
and unknown peoples.Anthropology and folklore are
deaUngwith such cases in quitea different manner from
what was once the custom, and comparativereligion is
usingsuch material with constantly increasing respect.
 CHAPTER XXXVII

ACCURATE PREVISION OF DEATH BY A SOLDIER MONTHS

BEFORE, WITH ABSTRACT OF EVIDENCE

One of the most difficult problems in psychology

is that of
prevision. Such cases are indubitably
numerous, and valid,and they cannot be accounted
for by simplespirits of the dead, singlyor combined,
or indeed, so far as I can see, by a subconscious in- telligence
of any sort. For example, in the case
described by Dr Layman below, the amount of co-
operating

agenciesdealingwith mental changes pro- ducing

militarycounter-orders on the spur of the
moment, the varying resistance or non-resistance of a
body of a thousand individual human units,the direc-
tion
or force of the wind at any special moment, and
the mentallydepictedview of an unknown spot in an
unknown and unoccupied wilderness,far away and
months beforehand, I confess staggersme. It is such
''
considerations that make me look for that new tegration
in-
which will have a
any broader basis than
now at hand ; and
I cannot help thinkingthat this
new integrationmust involve new conceptionsof
time and space relations,perhaps time of and
space themselves. I have already mentioned some

cases of prevision.I could fill a volume with

similar cases with which I am more or less
familiar.
The Confederate General, John
Gordon, a B.
most capable man, both in militaryand civic life,
'' ''
in his Reminiscences of the Civil War (issuedbut
a few months ago, and justpreviousto his death),
devotes a whole chapter to various premonitionsof
death among soldiers,one of which was that of his
own brother, who foretold the circumstance of his

303
304 SPIRIT AND MATTER

death at the battle of Chancellorsville,

and which
occurred as foreseen.
One
of the most graphicand incontestable cases
of the sort which has come under my notice,a typical
case, indeed,in all its aspects,as subsequentlyworked
out from the army records,by myself,for a context,
is that of Private William W. Shuler, of Company
*'
I/* ii8th Regiment, Penna. Volunteers,who was
killed at the battle of the Wilderness,Va., 5th May
1864.
The case reportedby Dr Alfred
originallywas

Layman, of the Societyfor PsychicalResearch, and

one of our best-known Philadelphiaphysicians,
who
was at the time a sergeantin Shuler's company, and
was intimatelyacquaintedwith all the facts.
I prepared the record myself for the S.P.R., at
the suggestionof Dr Hodgson, taking down Dr
Layman's statement verbatim, which I had after- wards
supported by his own affidavit, and the fact
that his story was substantially the same as was

narrated by him on his return from the army in 1865,

supportedby the affidavit of his sister, togetherwith
copiesof the originalrecords of the United States
Government, bearing on the facts and statements
of army movements, battles, losses,etc.,etc.,the whole
supported by my own certificate attached. The
record was read at one of the meetings of the Phila-
delphia
Section of the S.P.R., and will be published
in full later on.

The brief
publishedstatement of Dr Layman will
"
be found on pages 672 and 673 of the Historyof the
"
ii8th PennsylvaniaVolunteers (the Corn Exchange
Regiment, so-called because organised by the
Philadelphia Corn Exchange). The book was

publishedby J. L. Smith, Philadelphia, Pa.,in 1888,

but was completed,as shown by the prefatoryletter
of General Chamberlain, priorto 22ndNovember 1887.
In this first edition of the regimentalhistory,the
statement was not signedby Dr Layman, but in the
later edition, of 1905, his name follows as the
authority.
Learningthat my friend, General J. B. Gordon,was
 ACCURATE PREVISION OF DEATH 305

giving space to narratives of similar presentiments,

among soldiers, I gave him a syllabus of the case reported
by Dr Layman, but it reached the generaltoo late. He
wrote me as follows, from his home at Kirkwood,Ga.,
under date 25th July 1903 : "

"
On my return after an absence,I find your letter of
July6th,in which you giveme a most interesting account
of a remarkable fulfilment of a premonitionof death,
which came to a private soldier of the ii8th Pennsylvania.
It is certainly a very remarkable experience, and if your
account had reached me a few days earlier I should
gladlyhave incorporated it in my chapteron presenti-
ments.
That chapter,however, has been revised and
returned to the publishers, and has doubtless by this
time been transferred to the permanent plates.Again
thankingyou, I am, with best wishes,very trulyyours,
''J.B.Gordon/'

The narrative of Dr Layman, in the historyof the

ii8th,is as follows :
"

*'
There came regimentwhile it layencamped
to the
near Beverly Ford, Va., as a substitute, a man of
'
fine physique. He was assignedto Company I.' as
W. Shuler. It was seen that he possessed more than
ordinaryintelligence. He was a fluent talker,and
affable in his manner, so that he soon won the good-will
of most of his company. He was by profession a lawyer,

and entered the service in the South-West as a captain.

''After the battle of Shiloh,he resignedhis com- mission,

and went to Philadelphia, and while there re- entered

the service. He told of his comrades

some that
he had been in many battles in the South-
hard-fought
West, but
that the very next battle he should go into
he would be killed, and that earlyin the fight.He was
often laughedat for his forebodings,
but he onlyanswered,
'
Yes, you may laugh,but nevertheless it is true ; for
I see it justas
plainly as ifpictured
on paper. But I do
not care, for I shall go to my death justas I would to a
ball.' When the Wilderness campaign opened, imder
General Grant,and orders were givento move forward,he
repeatedhis story,addingthat he had but fivedays more
to live, and that he would face the music. On the
"%/ morning of May 6th [see correction from the official
records,should be May 5th], when our division was

drawn up in line of battle to make the first assault on

plainlyin
the enemy'sposition, sightacross the clearing,
'
he said to SergeantLayman, of his Company : You see
those works ; well,justthe other side of them I will
'
fall. is the spot, I know
That it ! I know it ! The
7 sergeant said, Captain,'for that was
^
the title he was
'
known by, do you honestlyfeel that such is your fate.
If so, fall out, and do not go into this fight; I shall
never mention it.' The look that he gave the sergeant
'
was one not to be forgotten,
as he said : Sergeant,I
thank you ; don't tempt me : I have always done my
duty, and shall do it now.' Just at this moment the
' '
command was given, Forward ! and forward the lines
moved " amoved into the very jaws of death. The
sergeant, nowfullyrealising the situation,and the
earnest manner of his friend's reprimand,concluded to
stand by him. The lines rushed upon the enemy's
works. They were carried about fifty yards inside these
works. The fatal missile came ; the ball entered the
left breast
captain's with a thud. Reeling,he fell into
the arms of the sergeant,who now laid him down.
Loosening the knapsack from his back, and layinghis
'
head upon it,he asked, Captain,is there anythingelse
' '
I can do for you ? Yes, give me a drink of water.'
But before the water reached his mouth the blood came

gushingforth. The sergeantcalled to his comrades for

help to carry him from the field ; but the captain,in a
*
dying whisper, said, No, sergeant, leave me where I
am ; it is no use ; it is all up with me. Go on and take
care of
yourself.'Bidding him good-bye the sergeant
left him, never to see him again,as his remains fellinto
the hands of the enemy."
Signed in the edition of 1905, with portraitof Dr
"
Layman. Dr A. Layman."
"

Not signedin the original edition of 1887-1888.

The above narrative has been much strengthened,
both historically and evidentially, by the Official War
Records, vol. xxxiii., which were not publisheduntil
1891,and by the muster-out roster of the ii8th,which
was first publishedin the historyof the regiment,to
 ACCURATE PREVISION OF DEATH 307
which Dr Layman had previouslycontributed his
narrative.
I have come acrossanother,a similar case, also of a
United States who
soldier, fell in the Mexican War.
This case has been but
published, not so as to be cessible,
ac-

and I have added the officialrecord to confirm

the statement. The case is narrated by Dr S. Compton
Smith, who actingsurgeon with General Taylor's
was
''

army in Mexico,in 1846,in his book Chile Con Came,"

and who personally
was acquaintedwith the facts.
It was during the operationswhich resulted in the
capture of Monterey, and he quotes from Dr E. R.
Chamberlain,one of our best-known army surgeons in
that war, as to the general plan of operationsand their
results. In a letter to S. C. West, of Milwaukee,written
28th September 1846,a week after the events narrated,
he describes the positionof Taylor's army confronting
the works at Monterey. General Worth marched his
division secretly away off to the right, and into the rear
of the defenders, to attack their works there. This was
on the night of 20th September. Taylor meanwhile
made a demonstration on his front. ''At length,'' he
''

says, a distant gun on the right, followed by others in

equal succession, told us that Worth had gained his
positionin the night,and had now commenced the
attack." This was on the morning of 21st September.
"
On the morning of the 22nd," says Dr Chamberlain,
''
a messenger came from General Worth, stating that he
had met the enemy, on the plainbeyond the fortifications,
the day before [the 21st],and had defeated them,
without serious loss of his
any own force ; and that he
"

had stormed, and taken at the pointof the bayonetthe

highestfortifications, and would have the Bishop's
Castle a"

strongfortress ^before night." "

"

In this he was successful, as promised.

Returningnow to Dr Smith's own narrative of events,

of which he was an eyewitness,he narrates,as ''A
presentiment," the case of Captain McKavett, a regular
army officer, as follows : "

''
Captain McKavett, of the 8th Infantry, a brave,
amiable,and much-esteemed gentleman,was the first
officer who fell at this point." The point referred to
3o8 SPIRIT AND MATTER

is stated,in Chamberlain's narrative,as that where

*'
Worth had in
gainedhis position the
night,and had
now commenced the attack/' This
was while Taylor,
with his main army, was demonstratingagainstthe
enemy in his front.
Dr Smith continues, writingof Captain McKavett,
"
For a number of days he had had
presentiment of hisa

death. While at beingtoo sick to be on duty,

Cerralvo,
I found him confined to a couch in his tent. He was
with
suffering a attack of camp
severe dysentery.I
endeavoured to dissuade him from attemptingto join
the advance of his column on the morrow, and to put
himself under medical treatment. I have no doubt he
would have so, if the prospectof a battle had not
done
been so imminent. But, with a melancholysmile,said
'
he, I must proceed to Monterey ; I feel an irresistible
impulseurgingme onward, an impulsewhich I would "

not overcome. I know I shall be the firstofficer to fall

before the town, and I would not shrink from my
destiny.
I thank you for your friendly continued he,
interest,*
*
but I cannot remain.'
"
for his
melancholyforebodingas the
I accounted
' '
effect of his disease,
and so explainedto him. No !
'
said he, I have long had the impression, and nothing
can change my mind.'
"
On leavinghim, he bade me farewell, with the
assurance that it was for the last time in this world.
*'
Poor fellow ! his presentimentswere but too true.
A nine pound shot struck him in the breast while he was
leadingon his company, him instantly."
killing
There are certain significant
resemblances in this case
"
to the Shuler case. For example, I have longhad the
" *'
impression ; I know
the first officer to I shall be
" *'
fall ; I must proceedto Monterey ; I feel an irre-
sistible
impulseurgingme onward."
Then again,the loss is reportedas small in this en-
gagement

; and there are others. This irresistible

remarkable,and
impulse,however, is specially is not
uncommon in these cases. He was irresistibly
urged
death,and he knew
to his It seems it at the time .
almost
he was
that,the conditions havingbeen prepared, forced
by some like irresistible or inevitable power (un-
310 SPIRIT AND MATTER
'
of his prediction. The day is not yet over/ replied
'
he gravely; I shall die,notwithstanding what you
see/ His words proved true. The order for a
cessation of firing had not reached one of the French
batteries, and a random shot from it killed the colonel
on the spot. Among his effects was found a pocket-
book, in which he had made a solemn entry, that Sir
John Friend,who had been executed for high treason,
had appeared to him either in a dream or vision, and
predictedthat he would meet him on a certain day
(thevery day of the battle). Colonel Cecil,who took
possessionof the effects of Colonel Prendergast,and
read the entry in the pocket-book,told this story to
Pope,the poet,in the presence of General Oglethorpe.''
The conversation then extended to the others,and
Goldsmith related that his brother,the clergyman,in
whom he had such implicit confidence, had assured him
of his having seen an apparition. Johnson also had a
friend,old Mr Cave, the printer, at St John's Gate,
'*
an honest man, and a sensible man," who told him
he had seen a ghost ; he did not, however, like to talk

of it,and seemed to be in great horror whenever it

was mentioned. ''And pray, sir," asked Boswell,
*' "
what did he say the appearance
was ?
'*
Why, sir,something of a shadowy being."
A case of dream, thoroughlyestablished
previsional
and connected with the assassination of the well-
known actor, WilHam Terriss,is related at length in
the Proceedingsof the Societyfor PsychicalResearch
for July 1899.
It is therefore a case so recent as to be membered
re-

by many persons in England, the murder

having occurred on i6th December 1897.
The case was fullyexamined and reported by
Miss Alice Johnson, Associate of Newnham College,
Cambridge, and Editor and Research OfQcer of the
S.P.R.
Thefollowingis the narrative of Mr Frederick
Lane, the subjectof the previsional dream, which
was obtained by Mr Frank Podmore, the well-known
author, and member of the Council of the Society for
Psychical Research.
 ACCURATE PREVISION OF DEATH 311
"Adelphi Theatre,
^^
December 20th, 1897.
"
In the earlymorning of
the i6th December, 1897,
I dreamt that I saw the late Mr Terriss lyingin a state
of delirium or unconsciousness on the stairs leadingto
the dressing-roomsin the Adelphi Theatre. He
was surrounded by people engaged at the theatre,
amongst whom were Miss Millward and one of the
footmen who attend the curtain,both of whom I
actuallysaw few hours later at the death
a scene. His
chest was bare and clothes torn aside. Everybody
who around
was him was tryingto do
something for
his good. The dream was in the shape of a picture.
I saw it like a tableau on which the curtain would rise
and fall. I immediately after dreamt that we did not
open atAdelphi Theatre that evening. I was
the
in mydressing-room in the dream, but this latter part
was somewhat incoherent. The next morning on
going down to the theatre for rehearsal,the first
member of the company I met was Miss Olive
Haygate, to whom I mentioned the dream. On
arrivingat the theatre I also mentioned it to several
other members of the includingMessrs
company,
Creagh Henry, Buxton, Carter
Bligh, etc. This
dream, though it made such an impressionupon me
as to cause me to relate it to my fellow-artists, did
not giveme the idea of any coming disaster. I may
state that I have dreamt formerly of deaths of
relatives, and other matters which have impressed
me, but the dreams have never impressed me suffi-
ciently
to make me repeat them the followingmorn-ing,

and have never been verified. My dream of the

present occasion was the most vivid I have ever

experienced; in fact,lifelike,and exactlyrepresented

the scene as I saw it at night.
'^Frederick Lane.''

establish the fact that this dream

To was pre-
the narrative of the murder
visional, was publishedin
The London Times of
Friday, 17th December (from
which I will a
quote later), nd states that the event
312 SPIRIT AND MATTER
'*
occurred last evening/'which,hence,was Thursday
evening,i6th December.
The followingstatement will show that the dream
was related on Thursday morning about twelve
o'clock.
"Adelphi Theatre,
''December i8th,1897.
*'
Thursday morning about twelve o'clock I went
On
into Rule's,Maiden Lane; and there found Mr Lane
with Mr Wade. In the course of conversation,after
Mr Wade had left, Mr Lane said that he had had a
curious dream the night before,the effects of which
he stillfelt. It was to this effect : he had seen Terriss
on the stairs, inside the Maiden Lane door [thespot
where died],and that he was
Terriss surrounded by
a crowd of people,and that he was raving,but he
[Mr Lane] couldn't exactlytell what was the matter.
I remember laughingabout this,and then we went to
rehearsal. Olive Haygate."

The followingcorroborative letters are embraced

in the report of the case : "

"
Adelphi Theatre,
''
January 4th 1898. ^

''
I have pleasurein being able to state that
much
Mr Fred Lane, on the morning of the i6th ult.,at
rehearsal at the Adelphi Theatre, told me among
others in a jocularand chaffing way (not believing it
foran instant)^how he probablywould be called upon
to play CaptainThomas, that night,as he had dreamt
that something serious had happened to Terriss. I
forgetnow, and therefore do not attempt to repeat,the
exact words Mr Lane used as the reason (in the
dream) why Mr Terriss would not appear that night,
but I have a distinct recollection of him saying that
he [Terriss] could not do so, because of his having
dreamt that something had happened. It was all
passed over very lightlyin the same spiritin which
it was given,i.e,in the spiritof unbelievingbanter.
'^H. Carter Bligh."
 ACCURATE PREVISION OF DEATH 313

The followingletter to Mr Podmore is also in-

cluded
in the record : "

"5M1LBORNE Grove, The Boltons, S.W.,

"
January 20th,

"
Sir, With reference to your letter con-
Dear "
cerning

Mr Lane's dream, he mentioned it to me at

rehearsal duringthe morning of the day which proved
fatal to poor Terriss. The description he gave me was

that he saw Mr Terriss on the staircase (upon the ing

land-
where died)surrounded by several peoplewho
he
were supportinghim in what appeared to be a fit.
Something serious seemed to have happened, and no
performance took placethat evening another fact "

which was verified. As far as I recollect this was all

Mr Lane mentioned. I remain, yours faithfully,
"S. Creagh Henry.'^

It I think,evident that no telepathic

is, tion
communica-
from the murderer, Richard Archer Prince,to
Mr Lane the nightbefore could possibly
have furnished
the material for this dream, because the murderer
himself could not possiblyknow that the events
would occur in the
preciseorder and relationshipof
placeand circumstance,as these depended more on

Mr Terriss than on the one who afterwards slew

him. Nor could the latter have known that the
crowd would gather around on the stairs, and that
Terriss' chest would there be bare and the clothes torn
aside,because,as stated in The Times report, the
''
morning after the
murder, On reachingthe private
entrance" the stabbing occurred, while one of the
witnesses at the inquesttestified (Mr Graves) that he
'*
drove Terriss to the corner of Maiden Lane, Strand,
where they both alighted and walked to the privatetrance
en-

yards up the lane.

a few As he was putting ...

his key into the lock,the prisonerrushed forward

from across the lane and stabbed him," and that Mr
Graves then seized the prisonerand gave him in charge
' '
and then went back to the theatre, and
to a constable,
found Mr Terriss lyingat the foot of the stairs a few
314 SPIRIT AND MATTER

paces from the door,attended by a doctor and several

others. He died a few minutes later." See also
evidence of the stage-doorkeeper and of W. Alger,
''
dresser to Mr Terriss,who saw the prisoner
at about
8-30 [on the night of 15th December] watching the
people coming out of the stage door but did not
speak to him.''
''
The verdict was that the prisonerwas guiltyof
wilful murder that he knew "what he was doing and
to whom doingit,
he but, on the medical
was evidence,
that he was not responsible for his actions.''
The narrative in The Times of Friday, 17th
December 1897,so far as it relates to the homicide,is
as follows : "

'*
evening Mr William Terriss,one of the
Last
most popular actors on the London stage, was
assassinated at the privateentrance to the Adelphi
Theatre in Maiden Lane, Covent Garden. He had
spent the afternoon with some friends,and had gone
home to dinner at about five o'clock. Subsequently
he proceeded as usual to the theatre,where he was
takingthe chief part in Secret Service, and on reaching
the privateentrance he was suddenly attacked by
a man between thirtyand fortyyears of age, who
stabbed him in the regionof the heart and againin the
back. The weapon employed is described as a long,
thin-bladed knife. Mr Terriss at once fell to the
'
ground, exclaiming: He has stabbed me, arrest
him.' The assassin,after a struggle,was captured,
and straightway conveyed to Bow Street Police-
station. Mr Terriss,meanwhile, was carried inside
the theatre and medical aid was at once summoned
from Charing Cross Hospitaland obtained. It was
not possible,however, to convey him further than the
foot of the stairs leadingto his dressing-room, and
here, after lyingin a state of semi-consciousness for
about a quarter of an hour or twenty minutes,he died."
The part taken by Mr Frederick Lane is also
described in The Times article.
''Mr Frederick Lane, who 'understudies' Mr
Terriss in the part of Captain Thorne (Thomas?),
had a peculiar story to tell. He said :
 ACCURATE PREVISION OF DEATH 315

'
'^
I dreamt about this thing last night, and
very
when I came to the theatre this morning for the hearsal,
re-

I told all the ''boys'' about it. I dreamt I

saw Mr Terriss lying in the landing, surrounded by a

crowd, and that he was raving. I seemed to see

it all

and then it all seemed to fade It was

away. a

horrible dream, and I could not tell what it meant.

I tried to forget it during the day, but to-night again,

when I came to the theatre, I was going down

''
Bedford Street, when something seemed to Do
say,

not there.'' I then went round to Maiden Lane,

go
and there I saw
this villain. I had heard of him as

being an
old and I knew he was asking for
super,
Mr Terriss last night. His struck
appearance me as

peculiar. He wore a big cloak and a

slouch hat. I,
however, do not know him, and he said nothing to

me.
I walked and then a few minutes afterwards
on,

I heard a great noise, and found that he had stabbed

Mr Terriss. I rushed back and saw

Mr Terriss taken

indoors. If it had not been for the police I believe

the man
would have been lynched. He was a fellow

of height, had a dark moustache and

average a what
some-

foreign I suggest motive

appearance. can no

"
whatever for the crime.'
 CHAPTER XXXVIII

UNPUBLISHED EXPERIMENTS CONTINUED "

CHANGING
WEIGHTS "
SLATE WRITINGS "
AUTOMATIC WRITINGS
PURPORTING TO BE FROM SPIRITS OF THE DEAD

Among my oldest and best friends was a very eminent

patent lawyer and practitioner
before the United States
Courts,of precisely
my own age to the day, I may add,
and who died a few weeks ago, full of honours.
Manyyears ago, between 1874and 1878 approximately,
he looked into the phenomena of mediumship,led in that
direction by certain experiences which I shall briefly
narrate later on. He was a man of inventive ability
and of mechanical skill,
and though a Quaker by birth
and training,
was a gallantsoldier in the War of the
RebelUon,where he was almost fatally wounded, through
the neck and head, at the battle of Fredericksburg in
1862.
There was a young man from New York here arily,
tempor-
who had the use of the parlourwhen he had callers,
at a house on 12th Street above Arch, and who had
mediumistic powers, and was ready to stand any sort
of scientific experimentation. He was only about
fifteenor sixteen years old,and was of dull,sluggish
and
nearlyhalf-witted temperament. His name was Hough,
and he stilllives in New York, I understand.
My friend had been interested in some of Sir William
Crookes' experiments in England,in changingthe weights
of bodies,and conceived the idea that he would get a
spring-scale, so-called, a spiralspringin a case with a
sliding pointer, Hke a barometer,and see what he could
do with Hough. I would not cite the case from Mr P.'s
memory, althoughhe detailed it to me as earlyas 1880,
but the gentlemankept a diaryin which he jotted down
his experiences, and he wrote this one down at once,

316
3i8 SPIRIT AND MATTER

to carry out such an experimentif it were open to such

'' '' "
chargesas, that^s easilyexplained ; anybody can
" '* '*
see the fraud ; ''his work was unscientific ; such
stuff is nonsense/'and the like.
As soon as Mr P. had withdrawn his scale,he felt,
under the table,a great pattingon his two knees, a
'' ''
regular pat-juba pat, and in puttinghis hand under
it was seized by some other apparent hand, his fore-
finger
extended, and this was rapidlytouched to the
extremities of the digits of stillanother hand, repeatedly
from start to finish. At last Mr P. caught on, to use a
*'
colloquialism, and exclaimed, why, one of your fingers
is missing.'* Then there was a great clappingof the
knees again,and Mr P. recollecting that a guide,or
spirit, or effervescence, or something, was appearing,at
the Holmes seances (whichwere not all genuineby any
means), which had only three fingerson one hand,
'' "
Mr P. asked, Are you three-fingered Aleck ? or what-
ever
the name was, to which a triumphantassent was
given.
As I shall not have time to discuss so-called slate
I will
writing, mention a example,for
single which the
evidence itselfwas put into my hands some years ago
by Mr P.,and which
I stillhave in my possession.Many
will recollect that after the Katie King phenomena, with
which Sir William Crookes was so closelyconnected,
and which he
fullyand beautifully
so described,like
phenomena appearedhere in Philadelphia at some of the
Holmes seances^ and John King, or in reality the old
buccaneer,Morgan, the allegedfather,also appeared.
There was apparentlya good deal of fraud in some of
these experiments,certainly there was a good deal of
controversyabout them, with which I am not at all
concerned.
Mr P. conceived the idea that he would try a test case
with the old pirate,as he had alreadyexperimented
somewhat with had been here, in slate
Slade, who
writing.For this purpose my friend againmade use of
the boy Hough. This was in 1875 or 1876. He went
from his office one morning and bought two children's
slates,which Ifind,by measurement, were 7 in. longand
5|-in. wide ; they had thick,strong,hardwood frames,
 UNPUBLISHED EXPERIMENTS 319

f in. thick,and lyV in. wide. He took

these to his
and bored
office, a hole throughthe middle of each side
of the two, countersunk those on one of the slates,and
then screwed the two together, at opposite sides,by a
|-in. brass wood-screw, sinkingthe conical head beneath
the level. Having placed three very small bits of
coloured slate-crayon inside, one white,one red,and one
blue,each about as largeas a grainof rye, he screwed the
two slates firmlytogether. He then melted over a

gas flame alternately three sticks of sealing-wax, each of

a different colour, dropping them on to the screw heads,
so as to make a raised, glossy,and irregularly coloured
boss. When these were cold,he took a fine needle,and,
with a magnifyingglass, set minute punctures in sets of
three,and quiteinvisible to the naked eye, all over these
surfaces. He now felt prettysure that whatever turned
up inside would not be due to any crude sort of fraud,if
he kept hold of the slates.
He then put the slates into his overcoat pocket,and
went up, a few blocks, to see Hough.
Sitting there in the parlour, without any intervening
apparatus,he asked Hough if he thoughthe could get
anythingwritten inside,and Hough didn't know, but
thoughtit worth while to try.
So Mr P. went over to the table, and took hold of one
end of the two united slates, and Hough put his hands on
the other,and Mr P. audiblyasked John King if he
would communicate, and were present,to take those
bits of crayon and make a mark with each,on one of the
slates, inside,in the following order: red, white and
"

blue.
But a few seconds
passed until a tap was heard,and
Hough said he guessedthey were through.
Mr P. then pocketed the slates again,and, to get rid
of any notion of hypnoticsuggestionmaking him see
what wasn't,he applied his glassto the sealing-wax
bosses,and found that the various colours were the same
and that the microscopic
dents were as they had been
before.
He then removed the unscrewed
sealing-wax, one

screw, and swung the top slate around so as to uncover

the under one. Bear in mind that the slates had not
320 SPIRIT AND MATTER

been out of Mr P/s hands,that it was in broad daylight,

in the middle of a public and that the slates were
parlour,
broughtthere and taken
by Mr P.,that theywere
away
''
his own, had never been magnetised,'*and that I now
have them before me, with the writingprecisely as it
was seen by Mr P. on justopeningthe slates. He had
asked for a single mark by each crayon in the order,
red,white and blue. What Mr P. found,and what I now
read,is the following : "

Red (r)

White (w)

Blue (b)

This is the shape,set thus beside each other,as in text.

It will be seen that the
writing, when the slates were
rotated togetheron the pivot, was from top to bottom
on one slate, and from bottom to top on the other. It
was a bold, rough handwriting,perfectlylegible
throughout.
Now, I do not claim to know whether the old buccaneer
was presentor not,or what power, or modus operandi, or

mechanism, producedthis writing; but I do know that

a case like this is a legitimatecase for investigation, and
that the lines of investigation, and their methods,pertain
to psychology.
But Mr P. did a far greater service to psychology than
by the isolated experiments he made, a few only out of
a large number of which I have above narrated.
For he placedin my hands (tobe used at my discretion,
by the Society for PsychicalResearch, and with
authority, if necessary, to use his own name, and the
names of those others present, and of the alleged com-
municators),

the original and intact record of a series

of automatic writings, coveringin aU more than sixty

pages of manuscript,and extendingfrom 25th January

to i8th March 1875,with notes of other experiments
with tables before and afterwards. I will not use the
permissionto givethe actual names at present,as my
 UNPUBLISHED EXPERIMENTS 321
friend has veiy died,and
recently his
surviving children
may not be satisfiedto have me do so ; but I hope to do
this later on, and reproducethe manuscriptfor the
S.P.R. entire, and precisely as written automatically in
his family.
These records were written,nearlyall,in a small
quarto blank book,and in many cases are almost micro- scopic,
requiring a glass to read easily.There are no
erasures, interlineations or halts and dashes,and the
record of each sitting reads as easily as a conversation

between a number of friends in a sitting-room, as it

really was. This is to be accounted for by the fact that
all the sittersand communicators were relatives, or close

personalfriends who had long known each other,and

that no interpreting mechanism was employed each "

commxmicator, apparently, using the agent'sarm at

will,and justas persons would use a telephoneunder
like circumstances.
In order to understand the circumstances more clearly,
I would say that the young wife of Mr P.,a most devout
Christian woman, died duringthe following year (the
messages having been discontinued,Mr P. told me, as
stated by the communicators,on account of danger to
her vitality),and immediatelyafter her death,Mr P.
wrote explanatory
an preface, and private explanatory
letter, in which form the completedmanuscriptnow
appears. But, findingthat the Societyfor Psychical
Research was directly in line of such investigation(his
family not beingespecially interested in psychology),
he consented to turn the whole over to me, feelingpressed
im-
with the importanceto the world of the work
of that society, and to myselfin especial. Mr P. and I
had been bosom friends since 1879,and we have often
talked over this record,and his other experiments, long
before I the records themselves or his diaries.
saw

Almost immediatelyafter the death of his wife,he

preparedhis prefatory note, as follows : "

"
In of the Writings
Explanation which Appearin This
Book."
"
On the eveningof the15th of December 1874,there
were presentat my then residence,No. 728 Buttonwood
Street, my wife
Philadelphia, and and
myself, our niece
X
322 SPIRIT AND MATTER

and her husband (H. G.),who were livingwith us at the

time. None of us, I believe, had at that time ever
witnessed any so-called spiritual
manifestations,except
that I had on two or three occasions been presentat the
' '
notorious Katie King seances ; nor were any of us
interested
particularly in the subject.
"
After
our four children had gone to bed,I suggested
that we should sit at a table and see whether we could
cause it to tip,or move about : the others fell in with
my and
suggestion we took seats around small angular
a rect-
table. We sat,perhaps,twenty minutes,with
the gas turned down very low,when finallybecame we

amused and merry at the thoughtof four,sober,sensible

persons expectingsuch a ridiculous thing as to see a
table move about by simplecontact of the hands without
the known exertion of force on their part ; and were
about to abandon further prosecution of the experi-
ment.
"
I, however, importuned for five minutes* grace to
*
the which
spirits,' was accorded by the other sitters ;
but before the time was out, the table manifested signs
of lifeand a Each, of course, accused the
will of its own.
other of clandestinely producing the movements, but
the affairbegan to wear a more serious aspectwhen, after
turningup the gas a little, we observed that only the
tipsof our fingers touched the top of the table.
"
It occurred to me that perhaps I could learn from
' '
the table itselfwho was the medium in the quartette,
and, upon askingthe question, the former tippedand
rocked forcibly towards and against my wife.
"
Then at my suggestion, we all except my wife with-
drew
entirely from contact with the table ; thereupon
and afterwards, whenever (and only when) my wife sat
at the table,we received numerous very distinct and
characteristic communications,piuporting to come from
various (deceased) relatives and friends, and acquaint-
ances,
a record of many of which I made at the time in

my diary.
\^' The modus operandiof receiving these messages was
as follows : of the table,
^Three (3)tips
"
or knocks against
the floor, it was agreed should signify an affirmative "

one a negative.Upon calling, either mentally or aloud,

 UNPUBLISHED EXPERIMENTS 323

over the alphabet,three tipsor raps would be made as

the letter wanted was reached.

"
eveningof the 24th of January 1875,as we
On the
sat around the table, it suddenlyoccurred to me to ask
the intelligencethat controlled the movements of the
table (purporting to be my whether
father), my wife's
hand could be controlled to write the communications :
three most emphatic knocks by the table againstthe
floor,was the immediate answer. I then procuredpencil
and paper, and within a few minutes my wife's
thereafter,
arm controlled to
was write,and, a few eveningsafter,
I procuredthis book. The following
pencilwritings
are

justas theywere written by my wife.

"
She explained to me that,when the writingwas being
done, she was in entirely normal condition, except that
her arm, or the greaterportion of it,seemed numb, as
' *
if asleep ; and that she had not the faintest idea of
what she was beingcontrolled to write,or, in fact,that
she was writingat all,unless she looked at her moving
hand and arm.
''
Many of the communications were written as we

(wifeand I) sat before the round table in our parlour,

conversingabout various matters, imder the bright
lightof an Argand gas burner,and the children some-
times

playingabout the room. I observed,however,

that for some reason I could not tinderstand,
the control
could do better in a very subdued light than in a bright
one.
"The full meaning and of many
appropriateness of
the conmiunications in this book can of course, without
be
explanations, understood
only by myself and my
wife What was written was frequently
.
of an unexpected
character,and beyond a shadow of doubt they came
from a power or intelligencewhollyoutside of us.
"
My wife's left
hand was occasionally,
at my request,
controlled instead of the right(shewas right-handed,
and could not write with her left hand of her own tion)
voli-
; but the control was more with
perfect the right
hand, which seems to teach that the control is modified
and limited
by, and is in a measure subjectto, the
physical(and doubtless sometimes mental) character-
istics
and peculiaritiesof the instrument (themedium)
 SPIRIT AND MATTER
324

through and by which it manifests itself

as, although
;

the master strike the keys, or

draw the bow, the quality,
character and effect of his music, depends largely upon
his instrument. Is it not highly probable that the

instrument which is controlled by a spiritual intelligence

is a more delicate and more difhciilt to direct and
one,

control ?

"
On the evening of the i8th day of March, 1875, the

of controlling to write suddenly was lost and out

with-
power

apparent and never afterwards returned in

cause,

that form. And although on at least one evening a

week

afterwards we made trial, earnestly desirous of a return

of the (the matter having become interesting

power very

to us), we
did not receive a single communication, or any
indication of the of the intelligence of kind,
presence any

until, on the first day of October, 1875 (after we

had been

installed in our new home near Germantown for about

ten days), the of moving the table only, returned

power

as suddenly as
it had departed in March before.

"
It remained xmtil the eveningof November 9th, 1875,
and never came back, although we sat frequently until

wife's death, which occurred December 6th, 1876.

my
I made a record of the communications in the time from

October ist to November 9th in Diary for 1877.

my
''
Dated Philadelphia, Pa., January 14, 1877.''
326 SPIRIT AND MATTER

death calmly,without fear and without doubt,and with

a certain conviction that the partingfrom her husband
and littleones would only be for a brief
comparatively
time " and which enabled
their father to bear the
had
partingfrom their mother with a reasonable fortitude."
I know that Mr P. lived and died in this full faith,
in which he never for a moment from
faltered, the
time I first came to know him.
There are many of these communications which I
would like to present ; but space forbids.
But I cannot forbear quoting the following from
Mr P.'s advice to his children,in the prefaceto the
record.
'*
emphaticallydiscouragemy children
I would
'
from seekingknowledge through public mediums "

or those who exhibit or use their wonderful gifts

directly or indirectlyfor pecuniarygain or even for
support. It is my experience,with very few ex-ceptions,

class of invisibles who

that the are the
familiars of such mediums, are of a low, silly and un-
progressed, and occasionally even a malicious order,
and, whatever their intentions, may be actually more

apt to cloud belief than to induce or confirm it,except

in those investigators who understand the subject
well. If you cannot, spiritually drink from
speaking,
a pure fountain,then you had best not drink at
all."
This is the correct attitude of
psychologyto-day ;
and while all these sources are fully and fearlessly
investigated,it is to establish facts, and not to acquire
''
supernormal knowledge." Supernormalknowledge
of genuinevalue feeds into our minds by inspiration,
and through its many other entrances,and it is tested
and worked over in the great intellectual workshop
of the subconscious,as Tennyson says :
"
To shape and use.**

knowledge to be derived from earth-bound

But the
grantingsuch, is of a different type, and may
spirits,
be or may gamenotworthbe
^'
a the candle."
all understand
spiritualists
Intelligent this ; it is not
to give this warning to them ; it is the
necessary
 EXPERIMENTS CONTINUED 327

ignorantand the neophytes who are in danger,and

*' ''
those who
especially come on a run from the
materialistic camps.
An amusing and interesting example of what we
''
call interjectors" occurred, as I copy from the
originalrecord of a sittingwith Mrs Piper,by Dr
Hodgson, on 22nd June 1903. A member of the
S.P.R., the head of an institution for mentally
retarded children, was to have a sitting on this day,
but was unavoidablykept away, and she sent in the
(questions relating to some importantschool changes
in contemplation, as her friend and co-worker had
recently died, and was communicating with her
through Mrs Piper.
So, Dr Hodgson sat there alone,askingMiss B.'s
questions,Mrs Piper,while entranced, writingher
replies automatically.
Thyrsa,the deceased school friend, was cating,
communi-
and was called away for a moment, leaving
this last writing :

Thyrsa. I must go out, I think. I will be

back in a moment, excuse me.1 (Now here was a

chance for any anxious bystanders, which was thus

utilised.)
Interjedor.While that lady is out, I presume to
introduce myself to you. I am Hud-s-o-n (so it was
written).
Dr Hodgson, I am delighted to make your personal
acquaintance. Tell us anythingyou have or wish to

say, kindly.
Interjedor.I was a d d idiot.
Dr Hodgson. D d idiot ?
Interjedor.Are you Hodgson of Boston ?
Dr Hodgson. Yes. I know who you are, of
course, well.
Interjedor.My head is dizzy,but I am glad to
find my way here.
Dr Hodgson. I am glad,and I shall be pleased
to greet you, and welcome all the help you can give
whenever there is opportunity, f .^
Interjedor. Thank you, you are very kind,
I shall endeavour to help you often.
328 SPIRIT AND MATTER

Dr Hodgson. Amen.
You
Interjector. axe on the
rightpath ; go on.
Yours fraternally
J. (T. or J.)Hudson. (Scrawl.)
The
communicator, Thyrsa,then reappeared,and
''
asked of Dr Hodgson : Did you meet a gentleman ? '*

Dr Hodgson. Yes. Mr Hudson.

Thyrsa. I don't know him at all,but I saw him
pushing his way through the crowd.
Thyrsa'scommunication then continued ; as it is
I do not reproduceit.
not relevant to the interjection,
There is a curious circumstance in the latter part
''
above, suggestedby pushing his way through the
crowd," quitefamiliar to those acquaintedwith these
phenomena, but rather startlingto, and in fact
usuallydisbelieved by, most others.
It is the dramatic situation at the other end of the
line. Where was this mysteriousinvisible crowd ?
The generalimpressionis that it is hanging up in the
air overhead; but apparitions, which are like presences
made visible, do not usuallyappear floating about in
the air,but moving on terra firma. I shall discuss
''
this phase later on, in connection with the bound ''

'' ''
and free ether,but at present I wish to cite a
sentence or two from the record of a Piper sitting
with a lady,which I have justhad the opportunity
to examine. It occurred i8th May 1904, and the
original automatic writingwas made at the time.
The sitter says, I was in the midst of asking a
question,when Dr Hodgson picked up something
which had fallen down in front of the table. At once
''
the hand wrote, I do wish you would not push me

away.'' The dramatis personcewould seem to be ar-

ranged

as follows: Imperator and Rector

"
were ing
stand-
alongsideand supplyingmatter and controlling
the arm and hand to write,while the communicator
was standing in front of the table and giving im- pressions
of her answers to the control. Dr Hodgson
stooped down precisely where the communicator was,
*' "
and pushed her away.
In the P. record of my friends, alreadyreferred to.
 EXPERIMENTS CONTINUED
329

often a half dozen or more were gathered around the

instrument (the medium), and each spoke as occasion

offered. As these were

all friends and relatives no

violent interjections appeared until the final climax,

'' "
when dead dog and his friends turned
up.
I wish to call attention also to Mr Hudson's post
mortem opinion of his own published theories, and his

endorsement of the categorically opposite work of

**
Dr Hodgson, You are on the right path on."
; go
 CHAPTER XL

PLANCHETTE CASE OF AUTOMATIC WRITING, IN WHICH

AN INTERJECTOR APPEARED TO NARRATE AN

IRRELEVANT TRAGEDY

A MUCH tragicalinterjection
more occurred in a
planchetteexperienceof Mr Charles Morris,Vice-
presidentof the PhiladelphiaSection S.P.R., a life
member and officer of the PennsylvaniaAcademy of
the Natural Sciences,a co-worker with Cope and
Leidy, and who is also the author of many standard
works on historical and scientific subjects. These
planchette experimentsextended over many months,
and dealt with the phenomena of the beyond, or, at
least,purportedto do so.
The events occurred in 1873,but the narrative is
from the records written at that time, and without
subsequent alteration. The whole record was read
by Mr Morris at one of our regularmeetings.
As my purpose at present is merely to illustrate
these interjections, I have asked Mr Morris to send me
the extracts which follow,and which he has justmade
from the originals, prefacingit with the following
letter to me.
'*
Philadelphia,
"
June yth,1906.
"
Dear Dr Heysinger, " ^The enclosed cation
communi-
copied verbatim
is from a transcriptof the
original planchettewritings, made immediatelyafter
receiving them, and stillin the possession of Mr John
Ford, the recorder.
'*The comments are also part of the originalrecord.
The other persons present at the writing (besides
myself)were Mr John Ford, Miss Annie McDowell,
330
 PLANCHETTE AUTOMATIC WRITING 331

who was psychic,and my sister,

the Mrs C, who
prefers not to giveher name.
'^
As respectsthe Misses Thompson, as they have
long been dead, and as their share in the matter was
simply to confirm the statements, I can see no objec-
tion
to the use of their names. Sincerelyyours,
"Charles Morris.''

The is Mr
following Morris' copy :
"

{Extractfrom a of Planchetfe Communications

Record
now in the Archives of the PhiladelphiaBranch of
the Society forPsychical Research

Thesecommunications,it may be stated,were not

receivedthrough a professional medium, but came to
a party of personalfriends and investigators. The
followingcase evidential
isof interestfrom its strongly
character.)

Jany. 22, 1873. On this evening Mrs C, Mr M.,

Miss McD. and myself(Mr F. the recorder) had been
engaged in conversation, when someone suggested
that we try planchette. This we did, receiving
communications from alleged friends in the spirit
world, as also from some whom we did not know. At
lengththe name of '*MaryFrost" was plainlywritten,
a name that was absolutelyunknown to anyone
present. This fact was announced to the writer,
when there came immediatelythe following: "

'*
Miss Thompson knows the poor girlwho was

done to death by the slanderous tongue of JuliaM,

(the full name given).
"
Q. Do you mean Miss Adelaide or Miss Annie
Thompson ?
"A. I Miss Adelaide and Miss Annie.
mean both
They were my best earthlyfriends. Tell them that
Adeline (pronounced Adeleen) is with me, and sends
her best love to them and Bud.
"
Q. How were you slandered]?
 332 SPIRIT AND MATTER
'^
A. By the chargeof beinga free-lover and other
false and malicious stories.
*'
Q. Why do you come to us ?
"A. To get you to bear my message of love and
gratitudeto my dear friends."
We asked further questions.Neither the name
nor a incident connected
single with the lifeof ''
Mary
''
Frost was known to any of the persons present,all
of whom were mutual friends,nor could any circum-
stances
be recollected that would give us any light,
the name and subject-matteralike being entirely
unknown to Miss McD.
us. was requestedto send a

copy of the communication to the Misses Thompson

(whom she knew personally).This copy was sent
on the
followingday, Jany. 23, and on being read by
Miss Annie Thompson, she declared that every state-
ment
was literally
true ; that Mary Frost had died in
the manner described ; that she had doubtless been
"done to death'' by malicious slanderers, chief
'' '*
among whom was the Julia mentioned ; that
she was young and exceedinglybeautiful ; and
further,that the Adeline "
pronounced Adeleen "

*'
was a niece of Miss Annie's and that
dead Bud ''

was Adeline's brother. This message was carried

back to Miss McD by the bearer of the note
.
to Miss
Annie.
To make the statement of Miss Annie more cumstantial
cir-
I (Mr F.)accidentally met Miss Adelaide
on Third Street at or about the same hour her sister
received the note from Miss McD. I informed her
of the purport of the communication we had received
on thepreviousevening,statingthe name and the
**
incidents given. Her response was: It is true in
every particular," and she described,as did Miss
Annie, the relations which the partiesheld towards
each other,addingthat it was one of the most remark-
able
tests she had ever known, etc.

After the above described interjection,

the ordinary
communications went on, dealingwith quitedifferent
subjects.
I may add that the Misses Thompson referred to
 CHAPTER XLI

EXPERIMENTS CONTINUED "

TRUMPET MEDIUMS-
FURTHER EXPERIMENTS IN PREVISION "
CAL
VERIDI-

DREAMS

I WOULD like to say

somethingabout so-called trumpet
mediums, which so many theoreticallyingenious
scepticsexplainby concealed telephones, connecting
wires under the confederates
floor, concealed in various
places,and the but of which
like, sort of
explanations
''
Professor De Morgan said, I am convinced
perfectly
that I have been seen and heard in a manner which
should make unbelief thingscalled spiritual
impossible,
which cannot be taken by a rational being to be cap-
able
of explanationby imposture, coincidence or

mistake. So far I feel the ground firm under me/*

''
Again, The physicalexplanations I have seen are

easy, but miserably insufficient ; the spiritual

hypothesis is sufficient, but ponderously difficult.
Time and thought will decide,the second asking the
first for more results of trial/'
It is doubtful whether the spiritual is
hypothesis
more ponderously difficult than the theory of the
ether,or eternity,
that or of infinite space, or of
of
diminishingoscillating
infinitely systems down to
for there is no place,on a physicalbasis,to
infinity,
'' '*

stop, and all the difficultiesand drafts

absurd
which science makes on our beliefs,
as Jevons and Sir
John Herschel tell us, are surelymore ponderously
difiicultthan the mere survival of the consciousness
from one stage of existence to another,especially with
the phenomena of
sleepand coma before us.
The first practical experience with trumpet
mediums I am giving at second-hand, but I am
convinced of the truth of the narrative,
perfectly which
334
 EXPERIMENTS CONTINUED 335
was told to me, and to others of the S.P.R.,some
years ago, and shortlyafter the events occurred,by
the Rev. Thomas W. lUman, then of Grand Rapids,
Mich.,but who is now the pastor of a church near
Boston. is a man
Mr lUman of the most direct and
truthful character, a scientificclergyman,for awonder,
and a very able man. Mr lUman was not and is not
*'
a spiritualist,''
and I believe that this was his
solitary
psychicalexperience.
in
One of his acquaintances Rapids spoke Grand
'' ''
to him of a trumpet medium who produced some
singularresults,and who was then in Grand Rapids
for a short time. On the strengthof this he called to
see her,and was received in the parlour. It was broad
daylight,and the medium (of some of whose later
performancesin Philadelphia I shall have something
to say)gave him a trumpet, and told him to put the
small end to his ear and listen. The whole seance,
ifit may be called
quiteinformal, such, was as he told
her hemerely something about it,
came to try to learn
and not for revelations. No result followed, and
she suggestedthat they go into the adjoiningentry,
or hall,where the placewas quieter. The medium
was, I believe,knitting, or fanningherself, or thing,
some-

at a distance,and Mr lUman had chargeof the

trumpet entirely.He laid the big end across a chair-

back, pointingto the front of the house, and applied

the nozzle to his ear, and waited. The medium sat
back in the hall behind him six feet or more. It was a
warm summer day.
He listened with the utmost and the
intentness,
'' "
medium asked, Don't
finally you hear anything?
''
Not a thing,"repliedMr lUman.
'' "
Don't you hear any sound at all ? the medium
asked.
''
Only a faint clicking
or tickingin the metal, at
times."
''
Well,that's it,"replied
the medium, ''why don't
"

you ask who it is ?

Mr lUman desired inquiry,and a
then made the
voice replied
clear silvery in his ear, as if coming from
the largerend of the trumpet, and gave a name,
336 SPIRIT AND MATTER

which was unknown to Mr

then asked Illman. He
the unknown woman what he had to do with her or
with the matter, and considerable conversation sued,
en-

which I will brieflycondense.

This woman recentlydeceased wife of a
was the
man who was of intemperatehabits,and had been
going,more and more rapidly,since his wife*s death,
on the road to ruin. Her object was to have Mr
Illman save him if possible.Mr Illman got his name,
as well as that of the wife,through the trumpet, but
asked how was he to know him. She then asked if
he did not recollect that, some time before,he had
seen a man in a suburban under the in-
trolley-car fluence
of and
liquor, had gone up and spoken to him,
and tried to dissuade him from such habits. The
clergyman Then
remembered. she told him where
to find him, and wanted him to look him up and try
to get him to come to church, and begged that he
would do all he could to save him, which the clergy-
man
promised. Mr Illman afterwards hunted up
and got hold of this man, got him to church, made a
Christian of him, reformed him from his bad habits,
and he was, when Mr Illman left Grand Rapids,an
honoured and upright Christian man.
Some years later on, this trumpet medium came,
for a days,to Philadelphia,
few and took a room with
a patientof Dr Alfred Layman, who, at that time,
knew nothingof this clergyman'sexperience, or of the

medium. But being interested in such matters, and

a member of the S.P.R.,when he heard of the matter
he undertook into it. He found the medium
to look
a very pleasant woman, and since then we have found
that she is considered generallya very modest and
worthy person in all respects.
A mutual medical friend of myselfand Dr Lay-
man,
Dr Holcomb (a member, until his death, of the
Oxford Club),had died a short time, a year
Medical
or two, previously, Dr Layman having been one of his
attendingphysicians, as well as his bosom friend for
years. Of course time had intervened,and only a
memory remained.
But takingup the trumpet, and askinghow to use
 EXPERIMENTS CONTINUED 337

it,in full the

daylight, medium told him to put the
small end perhaps,althoughit was
to his ear, and in
the light, he might get something. He had hardly
'^
done so, when he heard, Well ! Well! Well!**
** '' "
Who is this ? asked Dr Layman. Don't you
know me ? I am
"
then came a name which could
hardly be made out, it was so confused. Then the
doctor turned the trumpet over to the medium and
she couldn't make out the word. It was then gested
sug-
to darken the room, Dr Layman stillholding
the trumpet, which was done ; and at once of
a string

sentences came, withall the accents and peculiarities

of Dr Holcomb, about his post mortem
telling ences.
experi-
I recollect one characteristic remark. "Why,
**
Layman, how did you come to get on to this ?
" " "
On to what ? asked Dr Layman. Why, this
trumpet business ; if I had known of this,I would
have hunted it up long ago," or words to that effect.
One more incident out of the many trumpet periences
ex-

which I have looked into,and I am done

with phenomena, as in my own
trumpet personal
experiencethey were inconsiderable, though I had
such. A gentleman from the interior of Vermont, an
old familyfriend of Mrs Layman, spent a day or two
with the doctor, and, conversation turning on the
trumpet matter, the visitor said he would like to
try
the medium, and her street address was given him,
and he departed. On his return he detailed his periences,
ex-

which were voluminous, but among others

gave this sentence
of an interjector :
''
Say, Jim, I'll
be going up with you on the train to-morrow, but
I won't take up your tickets this trip." This was
ostensiblyfrom a conductor on a local railroad in
Vermont, which he was accustomed to travel over,
the name given being that of a conductor then ceased,
de-
and
whom he had known long and well,as
both were from the same country district in Vermont.
I will now narrate a veridical dream, which I have
had from two independentparticipants, both of the
S.P.R.
A young woman in this citywas expecting'^to
be con-
fined
with her firstchild. Her mother and a ladyfriend
338 SPIRIT AND MATTER

were both resident at the time in the house. It was

decided that
baby were aif the
boy it should be called

Leonard, and if a girlEsther. The mother had long been

a widow, and the lady friend was unmarried.
A week before the anticipated event, the expectant
matron rose early in the morning and came to her

mother, saying, "Mother, I have had a strange

very
dream I dreamed that I was at a funeral, and that I
;
passed through the crowd and recognised everybody
there, they were aU our friends,around a coffin, but I
didn't see myself there at all."
"
The mother, to cheer her, said, Oh, dreams are

nonsense ;
I had a dream last night too, and I dreamed
that I had got a baby, and that's ridiculous." Just then
*'
the lady friend called down, I dreamed that you got
through and had your baby all right ; so don't worry,
but that it wasn't named either Leonard or Esther."
These various dreams were mentioned to the doctor,
who, to safeguard everything, and allay anxiety, pro-
vided
means at hand forevery possible contingency.
The confinement was concluded with every favourable
indication ;
the doctor was a most careful and skilful
obstetrician ;
all were happy ; it was a splendid girl
baby ;
when
suddenly, without warning, a most terrific
internal haemorrhage occurred, which all means ployed
em-

were powerless to arrest, and almost in a flash

the patient was exsanguinated, and with her dying
"
throes called to her own mother, whispering, Mother,
"
take your baby ! She took it, raised it, and has it
still ; she is a lovely girl,now approaching womanhood,
and she was named, not Leonard, and not Esther, but

by the sacred name of her dead mother. Bertha. The

facts are as narrated ; they have been carefully vestigat
in-

by several members of the S.P.R.

 CHAPTER XLII

RELUCTANCE TO NARRATE SUPERNORMAL EXPERIENCES

"
^WHEN THIS IS REMOVED THEY ARE FOUND TO BE

GENERAL "
MATERIALISATIONS

Now, regardingmaterialisations by professional and

other mediums, the question is a broad one, and perhaps
I would not now speakof them at all, were it not for the
facts alreadypresentedby Sir William Crookes,so long
ago as 1874, and published in his works,of which he said,
in his Presidential Address in 1899,before the British
Association for the Advancement of Science,alreadycited
by me, that he had nothingto retract,and would now
make his statements even stronger, if possible.
And what I shall say will not be to presentphenomena
at all, but merelyto consider certain matters which came
properly before the medical profession.
It is a common opinionthat medical men are atheistic,
or materialistic, and, to judge from their opinionsas
publicly expressed,in cold blood as it were, one would
think so. But an amusingincident occurred, some years
ago, which gave me quite a different opinion, and which
I will narrate :

A medical of
society city, composed, at the time,
this
of more than two hundred practising physicians, at one
of its monthly meetings,held at Mosebach's,had Dr
Bayley,whom I have so often mentioned,and who is an
old member of the S.P.R.,down for a paper. The paper
and discussion in this society are always followed by a
banquet.
Dr Bayley'spaper was on a psychological subjectas
connected with practicalmedicine,somethingalongthe
lines of Dr Schofield'sForce of Mind, which had not yet
then been published.
The paper was coldly received, which was a rare thing
339
340 SPIRIT AND MATTER

with the papers of Dr Bayley,and those members who

did speak,besides myselfand one or two others of the
S.P.R.,spoke with sarcasm or ridicule. The mass of
the doctors thoughtheywere
present was as stolid as

about to be executed,and had givenup all hope. The

paucityof discussion left an aching void before the
banquet was ready,and duringthe interval one of the
professors, at the time the dean of the faculty in one of
our medical colleges, who was a member, turned to me,
'*
and said, I don't know about Dr Bayley'spaper ;
there is a good deal which I have never seen explained,
and I would like to." He then narrated the case of his
grandmother,whose husband was the captain of a
merchant vessel tradingto the East Indies. Of course

these events occurred many years ago, but he had heard

it from first hands, and the whole family had long
acceptedits truth.
One nightone of the children very illwith croup,
was

and the mother grandmother)had been

(theprofessor's
workingwith it,until at last the child fellasleep,and she
laydown, notingthe time,which was five minutes before
one o'clock a.m. She
by something, and
was awakened
saw her husband, in his sea uniform,standing at the foot
of the bed, gravelylookingat her. ''Why, have you
" "
returned ? she cried,springing up, I must get you
" "
somethingto eat." The presence said : Margaret!
and then slowlyfaded away. She noted the time,and
wrote itdown at once. Six weeks later news arrived that
precisely
at this hour and minute, by the ship'slog,a
terrificwave had washed the captainoverboard at sea,
off Rio Janeiro,on the Brazilian coast.
"
I said to my friend, Will you tell that againbefore
"
these doctors ? He studied for a moment, and then
"
said, I have told it to you, and,as I am an honest man,
''
I don't see why I shouldn't tell it to others." Then
tell it,"I said,and he did.
He was the last man to lend himself to superstition.
He was a noted man, and President of the State Board
of Health. Many of those present had sat under his
teachings,and his name was on their diplomas.
The supper was half -forgotten; man after man arose

to relate to himself,
supernormalincidents personal or
342 SPIRIT AND MATTER
"
with a startled cry, said, Mein Gott, did you see
"
dat ?
My friends of the S.P.R. are sure
two that the figure
did not return to the cabinet across their line of vision.
For myself, I did once see and feel a materialised white

form dissolve and disappearfrom the strongest grasp I

**
could hold it by,with the same swish,'*and slidedown
over the floor, or else into the distant cabinet, in a
manner most unaccountable to me, and to the other
observers.
This occurred with another medium, of whom I shall
have somethingto say later on.
The prevalentopinion regardingthe atheism or
materialism of the medical profession, I know from my
own investigations and conversations with hundreds of
physicians, is not correct ; and in corroboration of this
statement I cite the fact that Ridgway'sMagazine for
9thFebruary1907 publishedan abstract of the answers
to a like inquiry which had been sent out to one thousand
*'

physicians.The questionwas, Do you believe in

immortality ?
"
Six hundred replieswere received
from as many physicians all over the country,and only
twelve per cent, of these replies were in the negative.
I am satisfied that if the questionhad been more
properlyput, as involvingsurvival after death,instead
of '*
immortality," which is a matter for the future,if
at all, while survival after death is a matter of demon- stration
in this life, the affirmative replies would have
been nearlyunanimous.
In The Journalof the Society forPsychical Research^
for the month of May 1908,is an apparitional case municated
com-

by Professor Barrett, which is especially

interesting in view of the comments of this eminent man
''
of science. The case is entitled, Apparition seen soon
'
after death,'and occurred duringthe summer of 1907,
Citingonly the significant facts,the gentlemanwhose
apparition appearedto a young girlin a convent school
on the Continent shot himself in London on 29thMay
1907. The young girl, named Minnie,who was not a
Catholic, was his godchild, to whom he bequeathed an
annuity. Her mother resided in London and did not
write to her daughteruntil nearlya week after the
 RELUCTANCE TO NARRATE 343

death of the whom

gentleman, Minnie had alwayscalled
"
uncle/'and to whom she was much attached. In the
letter,
moreover, the mother merely stated that her
uncle had suddenlyon the precedingWednesday,
died
and had been buried on Saturday.
''

Quoting now from the mother's narrative, On the

Saturday morning she was in the church with Mere
Columba. She was up a short ladder dustinga statue
when she looked round and saw one of her school friends,
whom she knew to be away at the time,coming towards
her. She felt greatsurprise and almost shock at seeing
her friend in nun's dress. The young nun came up to
her,beckoned to her to come down. . . .
The nun then
took her by the arm and led her away througha side
door of the church,where she had never been before, and
through the nuns' refectory, where no one is allowed,
and thence into their private chapel, and broughther to
one of the pews. She can describe ever5d:hing, even one

of the pictures on the walls of the refectory, which ap-peared

to have several pieces of red tape hangingfrom
a figure in the picture, and which she had not seen before,
but subsequently was found to have correctly described.
She knelt and felt someone near her : she looked up and,

she says, there was Uncle Oldham standing by her. Her

firstthoughtswere, mother never told me he was coming
over to Belgiimi.But she felt somethingwas wrong,
his face bore such terrible suffering. He came up and
'
placed his hand in hers and said : Minnie ! I have
done, a terrible thing. I have taken my own lifebecause
a woman would not love me, and I am suffering much.
I never believed what I ought to have on earth. Pray
for me.' He told her he was in need of earthly prayers ;
theyhelped him. She then prayed, and after that the
same nun came and led her out of church and she found
herself on the ladder dazed. She managed to getdown,
when Mere Columba noticed she looked very white and
ill,took her away, and she lay down for some hours.
has appearedto her every morning,
Since then the figure
about four or but onlymomentarily.
five, He has never

spokenagain,but each time his expressionchangedand

a happierlook came in his face. Her words were :
*
Oh, mother, I have prayed so, I want to forget the
344 SPIRIT AND MATTER

awful look on his face when I firstsaw him. That look

isgoingnow/ He came to her usual the day she
as

left,but nothing has been seen here in London. The

child seems to take it very calmly. What worried her
so terribly
was not knowing the truth. She dared not
write to ask me about it, as all their letters are read,and
so she had to wait until she came home. The phantom
told her everything : all / had intended she should neijer
know. There is no one over there who knows anything
about either him or ourselves. Each morning between
the two bells he stands by her bedside and makes her
understand he is happier,but he never speaks now."
To this was appendeda further paperfromthe mother's
hand, and written by Minnie herself.
also a description
Professor Barrett comments on this case as follows :"

*'
The
followingcase is in my opinionone of the most
and impressive
interesting of the many cases of phantasms
of the dead that my have
notice. ever come under
and her absolute
Knowing as I do the young percipient,
transparentsincerity
truthfulness, and brightintelli-
gence,
I am convinced of the substantial accuracy of the
story she has told. Moreover, the fact of her being
secluded in a convent school when the apparition
occurred "
a placein which no news of the outside world
is allowed to percolate, except through letters from
relatives which are previously opened and read this in "

itselfrenders the case almost an ideal one, and it would

have been wholly so had Mere Columba lived a little
longer, so that her confirmation of the story and date of
the apparition had been obtained. Nor do I see how
any explanation of the case can be based on telepathy
from the living, except by making assumptionswhich
are more difficultto accept than the hypothesis of the
conscious survival of the personality for (at any rate)
a certain period after the death of the body.'*
In Chapter xxxiii. of this book, I quoted a letter of
T. Adolphus Trollopeto the Dialectical Society, stating
"
the opinionof Bosco,one of the greatestprofessors of
legerdemainever known," who scouted the possibility
of such phenomena as Trollopehad seen and described,
as beingperformedby such means.
He has since publisheda series of autobiographical
 RELUCTANCE TO NARRATE 345
sketches in two volumes entitled: "What I Remember/'
by Thomas 1890,which
Adolphus Trollope, describes
many experiments
psychical
interesting and phenomena
in the author's experience.He narrates one of these as

follows :"

"
placeon record a singular
I will storyof a so-called
supernaturaloccurrence which happened within her
experience.I premisethat she was, in my opinion, as

accurately truthful a person as ever spoke; also that

she was markedly calm by nature,and especially little
liable to be made the fool of purposeddeception, or of
any tricks of her own imagination.
''Although I remember the story very well,I have
thought,when I set about to write it,that it would be
well to make sureof my accuracy. And with this view I
have written to the lady in question,and have received
so accurate and lucid a statement of the facts that I
think I cannot do better than give them in her own
words.
" '
I enclose an account of the circumstance of my
childhood about which you have inquired, such as I have
heard it frequently stated by my mother. I was between
five and six years old,and was sittingone winter evening
at dinner, with my father and mother. Suddenly
lookingup, my mother perceivedthat I was deadlypale
and shivering.Much alarmed,she asked what was the
matter, ''Nothing," I answered, "only the lady who
passedbehind me justnow smiled and blew upon me,
and made me cold all over.'* To the various questions
put to me by my father and mother I replied, without
any signsof fear or wonder, that the ladyhad come in at
the door behind my back on the left and had gone out
at the window opposite (whichopened on to a balcony);
how I could not tell, for neither had been opened ; that,
though she crossed the room behind me, I saw her quite
distinctly. I described her as tall and slender,
with dark
hair,dressed in gray silk dress,
a and carryinga lighted
candle. The pallorand fitsof shivering
lasted a day or
two, and then no more was said or thoughtabout the
matter.
" '
Some months later,a young gentleman called
to see my parents. He had been a great favourite
346 SPIRIT AND MATTER

and frequentvisitor ; but had not, to their surprise,

a

made his appearance latterly. On his enteringthe

drawing-room,my mother noticed his sad and altered
features,and his mourning garments ; and inquired
at once what had happened, and why he had stayed
away so long ?
'' ' '^ '^
Have you not heard,''he said, that my
beloved mother died suddenly some months back ?
I was so broken-hearted that
I left Paris after the
funeral,and have been in Italyto try to get
travelling
over my trouble. But I felt my earliest visit on re-
turning
home must be to you, as I wished to tell you
that my dear mother's last thought and words were
about your littlegirl."
'' * " "
How so, since she had never seen her ?
asked my mother.
'' ' "
No, but you are aware how fond I am of your
child. And I had often and often spoken about her
to my mother, and had promised I would bring the
littlegirlto see her.
'^ ' ^'
On that day we had justbeen summoned to
our dinner,when my mother walked into the dining-
room from her own room where she had beendressing,
'
and on seeingme said, When are you going to bring
'
littleClara to see me, Henri ? Before I had time to
answer her, she suddenly dropped the lightshe was

carryingand fell back in what seemed a swoon, but

was in realitydeath from aneurism."
'*
My mother with some
^
agitation asked the date
and hour of the catastrophe,
and also inquiredwhat
were appearance and
the costume of the deceased
lady. All these pointsabsolutely coincided with the
"
extraordinary vision I had had.'
Mr TroUope also narrates
frequentlyre-
peated a case

to his
aged man, wife by an
the perfect
veracity and accuracy of whose statements she always
felt to be absolutely unimpeachable. When he was a
child about eightor nine years old,he was livingwith
his parents in Dublin, and his grandmother, Mrs
Lawless, was livinga few miles distant from Dublin.
The boy returningfrom school ran upstairsto the
'' "
drawing-roomand asked, Where is grandmamma?
 RELUCTANCE TO NARRATE 347
His mother
repliedthat she was at her own home,
**
but the boy repHed, No ! she is not at home, but
''
here/' His mother said, How could she be here ? ''

*'
But the boy answered, She is here, mamma, for
I have justseen her on the stairs/' He insisted that
his statement was correct. The old lady'sfigure and
clothingwere both of a remarkable character,the
latter rich old brocaded
a flowered-silk gown, and old-
fashioned high-heeledshoes. The boy was always
a great favourite of his grandmother. The corro-boration
was found when it was later discovered that
"
old Mrs Lawless had died exactlyat the moment
when her grandson saw, or supposed himself to have
seen, her."
I shall cite one more case, a brief one, which is used
as a part of the veridical evidence in a paper written
by Frederic W. H. Myers, the distinguished author
''
of Human
Personality," and published in the
Proceedings of the Societyfor PsychicalResearch for
''
July 1892,under the title, Of Indications of Con-tinued
Terrene Knowledge on the Part of Phantasms
of the Dead." At this period the author had just
been President of the S.P.R., followingProfessor
William James, Professor of Philosophy in Harvard
University,and Sir William Crookes, F.R.S., and
immediately precedingSir Oliver Lodge, F.R.S.,and
Professor W. F. Barrett,F.R.S. of Dublin.
The narrative is a simple one, which is the sort
which I prefer, for the lack of complexitycuts out
much extraneous matter which is eagerlyseized upon
by many to complicatethe problems and disturb the
judgment. In this narrative,which is abundantly
corroborated, as will be seen, the events described
are either true, or they are falsificationsor mistakes.
If they are falsifications,then who were the conspira-
tors,
and what was the motive ? If they are mistakes,
and if human evidence is ever of any use anywhere,
then what were the mistakes possible to be made in so
broadly-drawnand categorical a narrative ? While,
if the facts as narrated are true, then the case is
established.
There are perhaps a dozen apparitional
cases em-
348 SPIRIT AND MATTER

braced in this paper, but the one I have chosen to

copy out is the
following: "

"
Says Mr Myers, We owe this case to the kindness
of Lady Gore Booth, from whom I first heard the
account by word of mouth. Her son (then a school-
boy
aged ten)was the percipent, and her youngest
daughter, then aged fifteen, also gives a firsthand
account of the incident as follows :
"

" '
LiSSADELL, SlIGO,
"^February 1891.
'' '
On the loth of April,
1889,at about half-past nine
o'clock,my youngest brother and I were going down
a short flight of stairs leadingto the kitchen, to fetch
food for my chickens,as usual. We were about half
way down, my brother a few steps in advance of me,
*'
when he suddenly said Why, there's John "

"
Blaney, I didn't know he was in the house ! John
Blaney was a boy who lived not far from us, and he
had been employed in the house as hall-boynot long
before. I said that I was sure it was not he (forI
knew he had left some months previously on account
of ill-health), and looked down the passage, but saw
no one. The passage was a long one, with a rather
sharp turn in it,so we ran quicklydown the last few
steps, and looked round the corner, but nobody was
there,and the only door he could have gone through
was shut. As we went upstairsmy brother said,
"
How pale and ill John looked, and why did he
"
stare so ? I asked what he was doing. My brother
answered that he had his sleeves tucked up, and was
wearing a large green apron, such as the footmen
always wear at their work. An hour or two wards
after-
I asked my maid how long John Blaney had
been back in the house ? She seemed much surprised
'^
and said Didn't you hear, miss, that he died this
"
morning ? On inquirywe found that he had died
about two hours before my brother saw him. My
mother did not wish that my brother should be told
this,but he heard of it somehow, and at once declared
that he must have seen his ghost.
" '
Mabel Olive Gore Booth.'
 CHAPTER XLIII

SOME POSSIBLE EXPLANATION OF MATERIALISING

PHENOMENA

Regarding these
materialisations,the last word has
by no means been spoken. It has been asked, and by
scientific scepticsmost of all,where could these
discarnate spiritsget the material,either out of the
atmosphere, or out of void space, wherewith to
materialise ? and the questionhas been deemed to be
without a scientificanswer. We know the
presence
and hence the density of the atmosphere, and we
know that it would depletethe contents of a public
hall to btiild up even a small-sized ghost into a
correspondingbodilyweight. Some of this material
is said to come from the medium, some from the aura

of those persons present, and some from the atmo-

sphere
; but, in fact,it is by no means certain that all
of these togethercould furnish the entire material
requiredfor an actual materialisation.
'' ''
But our popularconceptionsof void space are

perhapsthe furthest from the truth of all the erroneous

popular conceptions held concerningany physical

substance whatever.
And even scientificspecialists
do not seem to form
any better conceptionof the practicalcontents of so-
called void space than do ordinarylaymen. Yet they
profess to learnedly discuss and deal with these
contents, whenever they deal with the phenomena of
light, radiant heat, electricityand magnetism, which
requirefor their transmission and manifestation,and
for their generationas well,a density for the universal
content of this so-called void space almost transcend-
ing
imagination.
The transmission of lightalone,for example,re-
350
 SOME POSSIBLE EXPLANATION 351

quiresa substance so dense or rigidthat,in the mass,

face to face,as it were, it will quiverfrom a state of
absolute quiescence into a velocity or rapidity up to at
least 1,000,000,000,000 oscillations in each second of
time. It requiresthat rapidity to produce the sensa-
tion

of violet the retina,and, in case

lighton of the
sun, that this oscillation shall be continuous along a
line nearlya hundred million miles long ; for us to see
the planetNeptune requires that the line from the sun
to that planet as a relaystation must be three thou-
sand
million miles long,and as longagainfor the wave
of reflected light to travel back to our telescopes again.
To travel one hundred million miles requires about
eight minutes,yet there are visible, nay, very con-
spicuous,

stars whose light, we know, has taken many

thousands of years to travel across space to reach us,
as it does.
Now, what is the significance of all this ? Who
ever thinks of it at all,while he thinks of void space
all the time ?
The liesin
significance the fact that to vibrate at
such a rate the void space must have somethingin it to
vibrate,and the faster the quiver the stiffer the sub-
stance
that quivers. That the quiveringis always
the same demonstrates that the mass of that which
fillsvoid space, and quivering,must be of a
does the
correspondingresistance, and hence of equal density
and rigidity.
In other words, it acts under impulseslike a tuning
fork. Now as you shorten the legsof the tuning fork
you raise the pitch, which means that you increase the
rapidityof oscillation.
The ether is a tuningfork,exceptingthat it deals
with the ethereal light, etc.,instead of with atmo-spheric
sound, and the incandescence of the sun's
photospherestarts the oscillation at the solar end, and
we feel and see it as heat and light, at our end of the
line ; if we did not catch and stop it,it would go on
through space indefinitely, as does all this radiant
energy which misses the planets, which, in fact,catch
only about one two hundred and thirtymillionths of
what the sun sends out.
352 SPIRIT AND MATTER

We know vibratingrate of the ether for light,

the
hence we can know its densityor stiffness,or rigicfity,

which must be very great.

Why then do we not feel it ? Why, when we
swing our arm around, do we only feel the weak
resistance of the atmosphere instead of the vast
resistance of the ether of all space ?
Simply,because the ether,while the substance of
all substances in actual densityand resistance, lacks
one, and, so far as we know, only one, property of
matter, and that is gravity The attraction of gravita-
. tion
does not immediatelyaffect the ether to any con- siderable

extent at all. The fact that lightrequires

time for its transmission shows some action of agglu-
tination
perhaps, but to our own physical tests it is
without gravity. Hence a physical body moves
through it without resistance,simply because the
free ether passes through all physicalbodies some- what

as a fish net passes through water, and we note

'*
no resistance, and hence we say, void space.''
Sir John Herschel, in his paper on Light, has givenus
a table of the densityof this ether,which results, of
course, can be found in any scientificwork dealing with
these subjects.He shows that a cubic inch of this
ether,if confined,and relieved from outside pressure,
would have a bursting pressure of more than seventeen
biUions of pounds to the square inch.
As we know that the densityis proportionate to the
bursting strain, and that a cubic inch of atmospheric air,
under the same conditions, would have a bursting strain
of only fifteen pounds to the square inch,we can form
some idea of what this ether is. We cannot, of course,
shut up this ether into a cubic inch,for it passes through
all physicalrestraints, nor can we relieve the outside
pressure of the ether which balances our cubic inch,so
that we know that this universal ether fillsall space with
an equaldensity, and that the physical universe owes
its existence,and all Hving forms owe theirs as well,to
the solitary fact,that the onmipresentether practically
lacks the attraction of gravitation.
And Sir John Herschel adds, "Do what we wiU "

adopt what hypothesiswe please there is no escape.

"
 SOME POSSIBLE EXPLANATION 353
in dealingwith the phenomena of light,from these
gigantic numbers ; or from the conceptionof enormous
physical forcein perpetual exertion at every pointthrough
all the immensityof space''
See also Lord Kelvin on "Ether and Gravitational
Matter through Infinite Space" (SmithsonianReport,
1901),pp. 215-230.
It is this ether under givesus the phe-
strain whichnomena
of and magnetism. It interpenetrates
electricity
all matter, and when enclosed in matter it becomes
" "
bound ether.'' Sir Oliver Lodge,in his Modem Views
of devotes
Electricity,'' much ether ; space to bound
and matter, our own crude matter, acts on the ether as
soon as its vibrating reach the periodof ethereal
particles
oscillation. This is the originof our lightand heat ;
that is why waves of ether giveyour skin the sensation
of heat,when heldopposite a red-hot iron rod. That is
how the sun givesus lightand heat. Says Sir Oliver
Lodge, "an atom imbedded in ether is vibrating and
sendingout waves in all directions."
" "
Now, through free ether,"he says, all kinds of
waves appear to travel at the through same rate ; not so

bound ether." On of this fact we

account get our
phenomena of refraction, aberration and dispersion.
So we learn,to again quote Sir Oliver Lodge, and I
"
know of no higherauthority, the fact is certain that
ether is somehow affected by the immediate hood
neighbour-
of gross matter, and it appears to be concentrated
inside it to an extent dependingon the densityof the
matter. Fresnel's is that
hypothesis the ether is really
denser inside gross matter, and that there is a sort of
attraction between ether and the molecules of matter
which results in an agglomeration
or bindingof some

ether round each atom, and that this additional or bound

ether belongsto the matter, and travels about with it."
It is true,as I have stated,that free ether does not
possess attraction of gravitation,and hence possesses
"
no weight,"but we do not know what gravitation is,
or why some thingshave it and others do not,or whether
what does not have it at one time may not have it at
another. We know that the and non-
gravitational
gravitational
substances,
as I have justcited,tend to
354 SPIRIT AND MATTER

agglomeratewith mutuallyaffect each other,and

and
that if even the most minute portion of such ether should
suddenlybe associated in such a way as to acquirethe
energy of gravitation, or anythingakin to it,we would
have a solidity, a ponderosity, and a physical momentum
sufficient to move the heaviest bodies about like play-
things,
and penetrate,it might be, solid matter, like
cannon-balls, without leaving a trace behind.

Nikola Tesla,so long ago as 1891,foresaw that this

prodigious mass and power of the ether (seehis Lectures
before the American Institute of Electrical Engineers)
will soon be utilised, in a strictly normal way, as a source
of ordinarymotive power. We are, indeed,doing this
now, exceptingthat we start the process at second
hand and, by the use of coal or water-poweras an inter- mediary
(forthese are both the direct products, through
solar lightand heat,of the energy of the ether), from
eddies along the shore,as it were, instead of a direct
appealto the greatuniversal source, the eternally acting
''
ethereal motive power of space. Said Tesla, There is
a possibility of obtaining energy not onlyin the form of
light, but of motive power, and energy of any other form,
in some more direct way from the medium. The time
will be when it will be and
accomplished, the time has
come when onemay utter such words before an en-
lightened

audience without beingconsidered a visionary.

We whirling
are throughendless space with inconceivable
speed,all around us everything is spinning, everything
is moving, ever5Avhere is energy. There must be
some way of availingourselves of this energy more
directly."
If invention,as I have endeavoured to show in a
previouschapter,comes from the supernormal, which
is the discovering and creating realm,then it may well
be that in these supernormal regionsthis very discovery
has longbeen made which we have, as yet,been vainly
seekinghere.
Franklin,whose placeat the very head of electrical
discoverers is now secure, by such an inspiration, drew
down from the sky this very electrical energy at first-
hand
"
^true,'twas in a small way, but when he was
" ''
asked, Of what use is all this kite-iiying
? he could
 SOME POSSIBLE EXPLANATION 355
"

respondwith his immortal reply, Of what use is a

"
baby ?
In the light of our recent discoveries in the fieldsof
radio-activity, of the X-rays, of wireless telegraphy,
and of the electron theoryof matter, it can hardlybe
considered bold, to-day,to ask for a suspensionof
judgmentagainsta prioriattacks on possible explana-
tions
of such occult phenomena as once were relegated
to the devil, then to discredited history, and finally to
superstition,but which,notwithstanding, have lived on,
and grown and strengthened, for,as Sir William Crookes
has said,the Vision of Nature grows more august with
every veil that is lifted.
Science is clearly moving in the direction of the
spiritual
; nothing can be more certain. In every
thunderstorm one may see the almost resistless power
of ether imder strain,bound up with, and bindingin,
the nebulousvapours, dissipated, intangible,
diaphanous,
scarcelythe skeletons of form,gatheredfrom stream
" *'
and sea, empty and till
idle, materialised by the ether.
"
Granting a discarnate spirit, let us say such a

specialised and individualised form of that Infinite and

Eternal Energy,'* which Herbert Spencer,in his last
" '*

paper conceded the Consciousness to be, and of

which Spencer "inferred,'' without tellingus why,
*'
that at death its elements lapseinto the infinite and
''
Eternal Energy whence they were derived (and which
seems to me as much of a non sequitur as that a baby,
when it died,lapsedinto its surviving grandfather), but
granting, instead, that since it had been specialised and
individualised, and trained and developed, it remained
a discarnate individualised spirit, and was attracted,
by sympathy perhaps, to a special medium, and desirous
of communicatingwith surviving mortals,and granting,
too, that an efflorescence, let us say, from the medium,
another from the bodies of those present,and
third a

from the atmosphere, perhaps,might be tangiblyavail- able

as a framework,it is not at all incredible that bound

might be attracted to,and agglomer-

ether,under strain, ate
with, and, actingimder intelligent power, might
produce all the
possibly phenomena of materialisation,
and those of poltergeists,
and other like manifestations.
356 SPIRIT AND MATTER

Such an interpretation might also serve to account

for the almost universal employment of such terms as

*' " "

magnetism/' electricity/* animal magnetism/'
*'
etherealisation/' "materialisation/' and the like,
applied in spiritualistic nomenclature, simply because

they seem appropriate, while no other terms are but,

;

as the most careful tests show, which phenomena do not

respond to electroscopes, magnetoscopes, galvanoscopes

or
other similar instruments.
358 SPIRIT AND MATTER

once after the

experience, was commenced, in fact, within
twenty minutes afterwards, and finished immediately.
I have also secured valid data,I think,excluding
hallucination and hypnotism as elements. As for the
personalgood faith of the narrative, that will have to
take its chances,excepting that another of our members
went with me a week afterwards to the same medium,
and the case was continued with added information,
with no materialised form of this personage of whom I
speak,but with plentyof others,
not matters of scientific
interest to me, and of which I made no written record.
I have read this manuscriptbefore the Philadelphia
Section S.P.R. in June 1905, and I will very briefly
abstract it here.
About
thirtysitters were present,arrangedin an
elongatedhorseshoe,with the cabinet at the open end.
A dim lightwas burningbehind the curve of the horse-
shoe,
throwingits red lighton to the cabinet,
as usual.

The medium's son sat beside the entrance of the

cabinet, outside, showinga vast expanse of white shirt-
bosom, which certainly remained there during all the
proceedings.Oppositehim was a well-known florist,
who broughta bunch of long-stemmedroses, which he
laid on the floor by his side.
The cabinet was closed in its rear, being an alcove
from the parlour. It had one window openingon the
yard,but the shutters were closed, and locked.
In other words, ordinaryprecautions were taken to
eliminate confederates. I know of my own knowledge,
however,as some of us had sittings in privatehouses
with the same medium, with a powerfulelectric street
lightoutside,where the medium had, and could have
had, no confederates there,and the audience consisted
of four members of the S.P.R. only. In fact,I tested
the confederate h3^othesis with this medium so often
and so conclusively that I know that whatever other
fraud might have been charged, it could not be of this
character. That she fraudulently impersonatedthe
materialised forms herself is another question.
Regardingthis latter, with other mediums, I can only
cite such cases as the well-known experiences of Sir
William Crookes, who feltand handled at the same time,
 SOME PERSONAL EXPERIMENTS 359
at arms' lengthfrom each other,the materialised Katie
King and the medium Florence Cook, in his own library,
as described in hispublishedworks. Or those of my
friend, Dr Bayley,a very capableneurologist and expert
in mental cases, and a most cold and criticalobserver, of
excellent training, who was, on one occasion, called into
a cabinet of this character with another medium, and
from handlingthe forms inside declared unequivocally
that there were there two livinghmnan organisms.
Also of my
a case own with the medium I am now

in which
describing, I was called into the cabinet. The
medium was stout,clad in black,with a closely-buttoned
"
and braided body,'*fastened up with multitudinous
black-glass buttons,and the cloth as closely stretched
as the skin, it seemed to me. I onlyfound one tangible
'*
form in the cabinet,but when I had communicated
sufficientstrength,'' I turned to go, and, as I steppedout
into the room, I heard a cry of surprise from the audience,
and instantly turned to find myselffollowed by a thin,
tall,female figure, clothed in white. The time required
for this transformation could have been not more than
three seconds,and, like
Sidney Smith, the medium
would have had to stripto the bones,prettynearly, to
effect this change of contour and costume.
I do not fully
understand these but
things, that is no
reason why I should allow others who understand them
very much less,or not at all,to do the understanding
for me. I agree with Professor De Morgan that,
"
The physical explanations I have seen are easy, but
miserablyinsufiicient."
I will now recur to the case of which I made the
record at once, and from this record I make the following
brief notes.
A
patientof mine,aged more than eighty, an old and
dear friend,had suffered for about nine years with a
traumatic rotary curvature of the spine, gradually
progressive in character, and finally, by a passive
pneumonia,terminating in death,at which I was present.
When all had left the room, I laid my hand on my dead
"
friend's forehead, and said, Dear friend, I will see you
later," meaning in the greatbeyond.
He was buried the succeeding and
Saturday, next day,
36o SPIRIT AND MATTER

Sunday evening,as it was rainingviolently, and my

offices promisedto be empty, I concluded to go down
a few blocks, and see what my other old acquaintance,
the medium, whom I had not seen for more than two
years, had to say. I found her packed up for her
simimer visit to Onset,in Massachusetts. She had been
ill, and had justreturned from a short visitto the country,
those presenttold me.
The sitting proceeded, as I have alreadydescribed,
many forms coming out to their allegedfriends and
relatives, in which I took,as it was an old story,a very
"
languidinterest. Patie,"her spiritual child-assistant,
and I,however, had somethingto say to each other,as
she was one of my fast friends. I will now quote from
my manuscript.
"
About a half-hour after the
sitting commenced, and
after numerous other manifestations to others,there
appeared a tallish (fora woman) figure, much bowed
over, and walking with an uneven motion, and an
apparently conspicuouslimp,more especially on its right
side. As it-advanced between the lines of sitters, which
were about 6 ft.apart,it carried its arms, in front, bowed
towards each other at nearlythe heightof the mouth,
and at every step swayed them simultaneously up and
down, as though either to assist in walking,or as a sort
of movement of recognition, or both. As it stepped
along,several said, 'The poor lady is lame.' None
seemed to know her, nor did the appearance speak or
make any sound from firstto last. When nearlyopposite
me (and up to this time I had taken no especial notice),
it turned suddenly,and came directly in front of me,
still waving its arms up and down, and then stopped
within a foot of me perhaps,and waved its arms, while
standing, stillthe same. I saw at once that it was not
the face of a female,but was the living image of my old
friend,as though taken some year or more, up to five
years and more, ago. It had the same strongface,short
gray side and chin whiskers, bare lip, short,white hair,
and a sort of bandage about the upper part of the head,
while the breadth of chest was extreme, as it was in the
caseof my deceased friend,and which was one of the
prime factors of his holdingout so long,for a number
 SOME PERSONAL EXPERIMENTS 361
of years after the accidents which finally
caused his
death.
*'
I expectedhim to speak,and I waited breathless,
but almost before I saw what was happening,the form
receded,stillwaving the arms, and was gone into the
cabinet apparently.I supposed that it had, perhaps,
gone back for more and
strength, would reappear, but
it did not do so.
"
After waitinga good while,and after a number of
other appearances had come out, I appealed to my
'
little friend Patie,'who is always ready, behind the
curtain,to explainthings. But first,
in an interval,I
asked the company if it was a male or female. All said
'
it was a female ; one said, It was a lady,and she came

to you, doctor.'
''As for the garb, the figurewas clothed in ap-
parently
pure white, and the sleeves were full,and closed
at the wristbands like a clergyman's sleeves.
*'
In fact, the whole garment was much like a surplice,
or a white shroud. The arms obstructed the view
somewhat, as the bent elbows front,I presume.
were in
'
''When I spoke to Patie,I said, Patie,can you tell
me the name of that person that came out, the lame
'
one ?
" '
get any I didn't name,' she replied.Then
'
suddenly, Doctor,she was a he.'
" ' '
Are you sure ? I asked.
" ' '
she replied,it was
Oh, yes,' a gentleman, and he
came to you.'
" '
Then, after a long pause, Doctor, wasn't there
something wrong with that lame gentleman'stop-
knot
'
?
" ' '
What do you mean, Patie ?
" ' ' '
I mean,'she said, wasn't he 'ranged
in his head ?
" '
Yes,rather,towards the last,'
I said.
" '
Yes, I thoughtso.' Then
" '
Doctor,didn't that gentlemanpass over from an
'
accident ?
" '
Well, partially
so, but it would take a long
time to tell you about it.'
" ' '
Yes, but it was a pesculiarcase, wasn't it ?
" '
Yes, it was, Patie.'
 '

362 SPIRIT AND MATTER

" *
I
thought so, it was a very pesculiarcase.*
"
After the sittinghad been going on perhaps ten
minutes longer,I having asked Patie to see if she
could find out anything more about him, she said,
" '
Say, Doctor, didnH that lame gentleman have
'
something to do with grain and feed ?
" ' '
What makes you think so, Patie ?
'* *
I
'pression of grain and feed ; it is only
get a
"
a 'pression I get.'
A half-hour later another figureappeared, which
''
spoke the singleword (letus say) Rachel.'' She
then walked directlyup to me, leaned over, and
^'
repeatedthe word Rachel,"and retired.
I then asked if this Rachel was connected with the
lame person, and a series of rapid knocks came from
the cabinet. Patie said that she had passed out
first.
" **
A little while afterwards the name Carberry
*'
was spoken,and Patie said, I think that's for you,
Doctor, too ; don't you recogniseit." The name
*' "
Saylor was also called out. Patie suggested that
Rachel and these others " all belong together."
The corroborative facts are that Rachel was the
name of the long-deceased wife of my friend, whom I
knew and attended till her death, that her maiden
name, while not Carberry,was all that exceptingthe
latter part, and that Saylor was the name of her
married sister.
regardsmy friend himself,
As he had much to do,
in a largeway, with grainand feed ; his death was
secondarilydue to accident ; and he was deranged
in his mind for a considerable time before his death.
Owing to the progressive injuryto the spinalcolumn,
he walked preciselyas he appeared, bent over,
limpingon the rightside,tottering
so that he had to
be aided on both sides,but occasionally
took a header
of his own, with disastrous consequences.
He wore long,nearlywhite bath-robe habitually,
a

for he mostly sat in a largeadjustable chair,precisely

as he appeared before us, with a cord around the waist,
but not always tied.
The most remarkable coincidence to me, however.
 SOME PERSONAL EXPERIMENTS 363
was that up-and-down motion of his bowed arms to
his mouth and back again,and so on, repeated over
and over.

It was due to a hallucination,

not uncommon in
these spinalcases, that his teeth (he had excellent
teeth for his age)were wired togetherat the roots.
I employed dentist after dentist,for some refused
to extract sound teeth. I consulted with the wife,
and at his
persistent demands tooth after tooth was
extracted,to give him evidence of the unsoundness
of his theory; which nothing would accomplish,
and up to his death that mute appealof his vibrating,
bowed arms, from mouth to waist was the one spicuous
con-

feature of his sufferings.If he had sought

the world over, he could have found nothing so
evidential as this,of his survivingpersonality.
Of course this was and sacred secret,
a professional

known only to his wife and nurse and to myself " ^that
is,fullyknown only to us.
It was not a thingto be talked about,and if it had
been,the motion itselfwas most unlikelyto have been
imitated.
The medium, I am sure, knew no one of this
family,nor of their connections ; there was not a
spiritualist
among them, and they were members of
the Episcopal Church, from which church he was
buried.
Inendeavouringto account for these phenomena,
while the experimentwas in progress, I took account
of the often-used hypothesisof collective hallucina-
tion,
for which,however, I have never seen sufficient
evidence in physicalcases.
But the opportunitypresented itself, by which I
satisfied myself that this was no part of the explana-
tion
required. Among these materialised forms were

two whom I had met there long before.

One of them was good old Mother Wheat, a
resident,while in the flesh,of Wheeling, W. Va.,
whose old inhabitants she had at her fingers' ends,
and who was very loquacious in her quaintway, and
alwaysurgingme to continue my scientific work along
these lines ; the other was Namouna, an alleged
364 SPIRIT AND MATTER

resident of Mars, here temporarily in pursuit of

her anthropological studies, a beautiful and

very

attractive girl, fond of talking with me on her

young

life in Mars, but who made me think far more of

Venus than of that other planet.

'' '*
But, on the collective hallucination basis,
these two hallucinatory visions, during the evening,
each brought me a beautiful hallucinatory, long-
stemmed from those lying on the floor, beside
rose,

the florist, and put it in hallucinatory hand with

my

complimentary but hallucinatory thanks and

very

good wishes.

I grasped these hallucinatory roses fast by their

stems, thought I did, for I made mind not

or up my

to let them for an instant, and, at the close

escape
of the sitting, I carried them home, still grasped in
my

hand, and then them to daughter, who, at

gave my
in admiration of their beauty, placed them in
once,

water in a deep vessel, and they remained and kept

in bloom on the dining table for days and days
afterwards.

I merely cite the facts, however, leaving to other

skilled psychologists the interpretation of the

phenomena.
366 SPIRIT AND MATTER

her present manifestations take place ^anywhere "

out in the orchard, in any room or shed, or, in fact,

anywhere. In her seances which I have attended
the cabinet was a rather curious affair. For con-
venience

sake she had made a slightknock-down

construction which she carried with her. It consisted
of four uprightshinged in the middle, with their tops
and bottoms joinedby cross-pieces ; the whole was

a skeleton put together something like a jointed

fishing-rod.Over the top and down three sides were
buttoned grey blankets,to buttons fixed on the sticks,
and together,something like the curtains used in
sleeping-cars. Another blanket, overlapping the
others,at the edges,hung looselydown in front,and
could be flung up, over the covered top, or pulled
down by the hand, to cover the openingin front.
The loose materials for this cabinet,which, when
completed,was about four feet square, and six and a
half high, usuallylay on the floor,and we were

accustomed to put the construction up ourselves,

without interference from anybody, and placedit in
any convenient part of the room. I do not recollect
any occasion on which it stood againsta wall,and
people could pass freelyaround it,and did so, at
pleasure. The whole affair was about as simpleand
unconventional as possible,and I have attended
seances there, with other members of the S.P.R.,
in which we knew personallyeverybody present in
the room.

The mediumusuallycame into the parlourafter

everythinghad been prepared,and made, or suggested,
any little changes of chairs or lamp, or of other
fixtures desired,although the daughter was very
careful and competent, by herself.
This medium's performanceusuallyopened with
some experiments similar to those described by
ZoUner in his *'
Transcendental Physics,*'
or some of
those described by Sir William Crookes, with the
medium Home.
Thesephenomena occurred in full gaslight,and
I will only mention them to give an opportunityto
describe a littleinterpolation
of my own.
 SOME FURTHER EXPERIMENTS 367
She stoodopen cabinet,with a wooden
in the
chair beside her,with cross-rounds beneath,and cross-
bars
in the back. Any chair commonly used in the
house served ; I got her one of my own from outside
the parlour on one occasion.
Her hands were then bound togetherby any of
those present; I and my S.P.R. friends sometimes
assisted in this,and I will merely say that we did the
best we could. The medium was entirelypassive,
and agreed to any sort of tying,or any sort of cord
produced by any of those present.
Perhaps she could slipher hands out ; she had
very beautifullyformed hands and wrists,but it was
not the to slipthe hands
ability out that puzzledme,
but how she could get them out, do her juggling,and
then put them back again in the short time occupied.
I am very familiar with mechanics and mechanical
operations ^have,in fact,taken out a hundred or
"

more mechanical patents,have been long identified

with mechanics, and have frequentlybeen called to
testify, as an expert witness,before United States
Courts in patent litigation, so that I do not approach
this difficulty precisely like an amateur.
The modus operandiwas as follows : Someone, "

anyone, would catch and pulldown the front curtain,

thus putting her in darkness in the cabinet. In a
''
moment she would call light,'* and the curtain
would be flungup by anyone present,and she would
be seen to have the chair strung within the rungs,
upon her bound-together arms. Curtain down again,
**
light,'* and the chair would be strung by other of its
rungs, and so on. Or a coat flungin would be turned
wrongside out and found put on by the medium,
either put on correctly, or else with one sleeve turned
wrongside out and put on, or else,if a largecoat,
with its back twisted two or three times across the
back and the sleeves on the arms correctly.Looking
at the back, the coat sometimes looked like a twisted
rope across the body. Or she would take hand-
kerchiefs,
and make
into the most them up comical
of babies,Indians,or the like.
littleeffigies
The time element was the factor
significant to
368 SPIRIT AND MATTER

me, and to all of From

us. fall of curtain to cry of
*'
light/'and it up, the time was
flinging never longer
than nine seconds,varying from that down to three
or less. Of course, the exhibition,with the open
curtain, was as long as anyone desired. I have
seen, as we all have, a chair dropping,midway in the
air,as the curtain was flungup, and falling with a
crash on the floor.
On one occasion I asked her if she had any
objection
to my snappinga rubber band on her wrists,
over the other bindings(and that is why I am ing
narrat-
''
these trivial incidents). Certainlynot,''she
said,and I took out of my pocket a thin rubber band,
such as they put round small packages about an "

inch or two across when unstretched. She held out

her bound wrists,and I
snapped it on the wrists so as
to make contact with the skin directly.
The experimentswent on justthe same, but after
a few minutes the daughter interposed,and said she
would not have her mother tortured,and I removed
the rubber band. I was sorry to see that it had left
quitea deep imprint,as such ringswill, in the flesh.
Of course this rubber band could have been
removed and reappliedreadily,
but I could not see
how any movement of the hands which would enable
them to be slippedout of the cords,and then again
slippedin,could,at the same time,remove the hands,
or hand, from the rubber ring,and againreapplyit.
I will not narrate any materialising experiments
with this medium, except to say that it was with this
lady that Dr Bayley's experience occurred in the
cabinet, in which he believed that he distinctly
handled two apparentlysolid human forms, at the
same time.
I will,however, mention that it was usual with
this medium to have the curtain flungup at the end
of the seance, and draw the medium out into the
room her chair ; and any of those present
seated on

were then invited to go up and examine her. The

room was fullylightedat these times. On one of
these occasions, within five minutes, certainly within
ten^ after I had tested the pulse,and, approximately.
 SOME FURTHER EXPERIMENTS 369
the skin and temperature, of one of these materiaHsed
forms outside the cabinet,I did the same for the
medium.
I found her pupilsrigid,her eyeballsinsensitive
to passingthe fingers over them, the skin cold and
clammy, and shrunken and wrinkled,the pulse 90
and very thready and contracted.
The arms were althoughthis might have
cataleptic,
been simulated
by the subject.
The whole physicalobjectivity, however, was
abnormal, and pathological, so that, if I had been
called to see a case presentingthose phenomena, I
should have considered it a serious professionalcase.

The form before outside the cabinet

I had seen

was rosy, warm, plump, with skin moist,lipsred,and

as quick and active as any young girlwould be in a
state of perfecthealth. In fact,very much like what
the form purportedto be, and which claimed to have
passed over thirty-two years ago, to the very month,
as she correctly informed me, but which fact I did not
know tillI looked the data up afterwards, and com-
puted

the time by other evidence.

So much for the phenomena. Now there is
another difficulty with this medium, on any basis of
allegedfraud or deception, which I am totallyunable
to explain,takinghuman nature to be of any worth
or character whatever.
For
many years my brother was engaged in the
jewellerybusiness in Carlisle, a small city in the
interior of Pennsylvania.
He usuallypurchased his stock in Philadelphia
and New York, and among those from whom he
bought in Philadelphia was a wholesale house which I
will call that of Mr Hooper.
I was practisingmedicine in Philadelphia at the
time, and my brother often called upon my family,
or I met him
down town, and sometimes went with
him to some of the houses from which he bought his
goods. As I sometimes wanted a watch, or other
articles in his line,he took me with him and introduced
me, among others,to Mr Hooper, and asked him to
sell me anything I might want just as he sold such
2 A
370 SPIRIT AND MATTER

goods to him, which Mr Hooper consented to do, and

of which opportunityI availed myself. All this was
perhaps twenty-five years ago.
My brother recommended Mr Hooper to me as a

thoroughlyreliable man. I know he had an excellent

reputation, and did a good business. He was a

member of the EpiscopalChurch, as he stillis ; and,

in due time, having acquiredsuch a competence as
would satisfy him, he retired from business,in which
he has not since actively engaged. He certainly was
and is a very fine man, againstwhom I have never
heard a word of disparagement,and many of my
friends know him personally, and I have, for my own
reasons, inquiredabout him, from others.
When I first visited this medium in questionI
found that Mr Hooper, with others whom I knew,
was present, sitting back and examining the
phenomena much as I did. I was told that he was a
believer in the truth of the phenomena.
So it continued, and when the medium was, at
intervals, in Philadelphia, he attended the seances at
various times, and meanwhile the young daughter
grew up to be a beautiful and intelligent young lady.
Some years afterwards they were married, and the
family has since consisted of the mother, daughter
and son-in-law.
As daughter is devoted to her mother, and
the
accompanies her in her journeys,so the husband now
does likewise, and they thus live and travel together.
It was at first contemplatedby her to retire, and they
went to their home in Southern for that
California,
*' '*

purpose, but the call of the wild was upon her,

and she was unwillinglytaken from her rest, and
again forced into her laborious life of psychicalwork.
Mr Hooper, later, bought a beautiful placeby one of
the lakes in Central New York, where they spend part
of their vacations.
One of my friends,of the PhiladelphiaSection
S.P.R., an old friend of theirs,visited them at their
home last year, and could not speak too highlyof the
home life of his friends.
Now the problem which I am unable to solve is this:
 SOME FURTHER EXPERIMENTS 371

Mr Hooper is a man of independent means he

;
retired from business to have opportunity for rest and

study. He is an orthodox Christian, a member of the

Church, and a man universally respected. He is

withal, as are his wife and her mother, modest, quiet,

and altogether unaffected, and with no craving at all

for notoriety.
For past he has travelled with his wife and
years
her mother wherever they have gone ;
he is always
present at, and takes an active part in, the siances

now ;
attends to much of the detail work ; apparently
he loves, honours and respects his family and yet,
;
if there is collusion, or impersonators, federates,
con-
any
trickery, fraud, or anything of the sort,
it is an absolute certainty that he must not only
long since have known it, but must spend his life in

aiding and abetting it.

And for what ? The money profit of those

seances to Mr Hooper must be a mere nothing to

;

anyone, indeed, the profits would be considered very

moderate ;
for these three people, together, the

profits could not exceed, on an the weekly

average,
salary of a good ordinary mechanic, and the labour

is hard and exhausting. They have two beautiful

homes to fall back to, and ample means to them
carry
on.

But if this medium has an appointed work to do,

and feels it, and is controlled by influences beyond
her own personality, and if her son-in-law and

daughter feel this also, and bow to it, then I can

understand the whole situation.

 CHAPTER XLVI

INCONSEQUENTIAL CHARACTER OF MUCH OF THE

PHENOMENA, WHICH MAY YET BE OF EXTREME

VALUE FOR SCIENTIFIC PURPOSES

To show the
utterlyinconsequential character of the
stuff which often comes along the invisible lines,and
yet that it has a value of its own in quiteother direc-
tions,
I will refer to a case of table tipping, to which
I have already referred as one in which the table
worked like a sawmill,and in which I was a principal

party, quiteunexpectedlyto myself.

I was asked to call at the house of an acquaintance
on Sixth Street,where three or four mutual friends
occasionallyconducted table-tippingexperiments
among themselves. I dropped in about ten o'clock
one evening,and the time up to half after one was
occupied with a singlemessage to myself. Nothing
else turned up all the evening,and I fear that my
three partners were a good deal disgustedwith the
paucity of the outcome. Nevertheless, I found
considerable side interest in following out and
endeavouringto account for the clues.
The table was a light, oblong,foldingtable,such
as are used by ladies for cutting out children's dresses,
etc. Two of us sat one one side,and the two others
on the opposite. The sensitive sat diagonally across

from We
me. sat there and talked upon various
subjectsfor about fifteen minutes, when the table
took a slide
diagonallyacross to the sensitive (who
was not a professionalmedium at all,of course, but
the lady of the house),and so manifestedthat some

communicator was at hand. Questions,with stant

con-

callingover the alphabet,then ensued, and the

followingwas elicited : "

372
374 SPIRIT AND MATTER

resident of but
Philadelphia, as a soldier I passed
around it once, with troops, in June 1862,but was
only a part of one day in Philadelphia in that year,
which was on some one of the followingdays, 25th,
26th, 27th,28th 29th September.
or
'' '*
The catch to his belonging
as to the Confederate

army, and yet not being a Confederate soldier

puzzledme greatly,and was only solved by the fact
that he was discovered to have been a teamster servant
and not an enlisted man. That he knew Greencastle
and Harrisburg, yet not Chambersburg lyingbetween,
is accounted for by the fact that we went north at night
in box cars from Greencastle, and he,no more than the
rest of us, waked up so as to see Chambersburg,although
I was born there,which we passed at night. I was with
the cavalrywhich (two thousand of us)broke out from
Harper'sFerry,through the Confederate cordon (the
placesurrendered earlynext morning),passed through
McLaws' and Longstreet'stroops, and intercepted,
attacked and captured the latter's ammunition train
of more than eighty-six mule waggons, with coloured
drivers and a heavy infantryguard, bringing the
waggons and hundreds of prisoners into Greencastle at
nine a.m., 15th September,whence we returned to the
Antietam battlefield, on Tuesday, i6th September,
and which is a matter of history. The coloured
drivers,of whom there were perhaps a hundred, were
left stranded in Pennsylvania, and some of them, one
^^ '*
or two I believe, sneaked their way alongwith the
troops to which I was attached,when they returned
to Rhode Island at the end of September.
But the personality of John Steefa,if I ever countered
en-

it,was at all times so vague and discon-

nected
from me, that I cannot recall him, or his name,
*'
or his doings at all. Perhaps I helpedhim to sneak
''
into the cars when they left Philadelphia ; perhaps
" ''
I got him some grub here ; perhaps I did some- thing
else for him; and perhaps there was no John
Steefa at all,and the whole scheme may have been a
dramatisation from some other source entirely; which,
of itself, is of psychological value.
Another case, of which I have justseen the manu-
 OFTEN INCONSEQUENTIAL 375

script, two thick volumes filled with automatic ings,

writ-

which to be genuine. But of what do

appear

they consist ? Of a series of formal sermons by some

practised clergyman, with text, outline, headings, and

all the paraphernalia, directed to this Christian girl

''
who indited them, doubtless effects of that ruling
"
passion strong in death of some ambitious man
clergy-
cut off in his prime.
 CHAPTER XLVII

VISIONS OF THE SANE " APPARENTLY AKIN TO CRYSTAL

VISION

In connection with the phenomena of crystalvision,

"
I may refer to what are known as Visions of the
Sane." Francis Galton and others have written of
these visions,but their explanations,such as scious
uncon-

action of the
usuallyidle cerebral hemisphere,
etc.,are lamentably weak, as I know from my own

experience. These visions are dramatic in the ex- treme,

but differ entirely from the hallucinations of
insanityin that they are visualised externally, do not
possess the visualiser, and, while not controllable by
the visualiser, may be cut off at will. I have a patient,
a most intelligent elderly lady,who has what she calls
''
her circus,"at various times. Many persons, by an
act of memory, can recall past scenes, even graphically
photo-
as it were, and recollect actions,conversa-
tions,

etc.,in quitea dramatic manner. But this lady

tellsme, and I have confirmed it experimentally, these
revived memories are not only different in degree,but
different in kind. I refer to are of the
The visions
same vividness as crystal are, in fact,as vivid
visions,
as if enacted in broad daylightbefore you, and are
full of life, lightand colour.
No scene in a theatre,no battlefield,
can exceed
these scenes and actions in vividness,and they are
always new, strange, and unexpected, and, as far as
I know, are in no sense revivals of faded, conscious
memories.
One of the visions of this
lady, which visions
usuallycame while wide awake, but mostly while lying
in bed, was of a tall, spare woman, who paraded
up and down, a few yardsaway, in front of a grove of
376
 VISIONS OF THE SANE 377
trees. She wore a very rare Indian shawl,of cent
magnifi-
pattern,which appeared in all its rich patterns
and textures,and her objectwas to displayit at its
best to this observer. She told me that the actions
of this vain shawl-wearer were the most dramatic
and amusing possible,and continued for a long
time.
Another was of a very nice-looking
man, who had
two heads. These heads rose straightup from the
shoulders. When she firstsaw him he was ing
endeavour-
to conceal himself behind
group of trees. one of a

But the tree-trunk,while largeenough to conceal the

body, could not conceal more than one of the heads
and faces.
In consequence, the visible head dodged behind
the tree-trunk to conceal itself ; this brought the
oppositeone into view, and the evident mortification
alternately experiencedby these heads was so graphic
that it became pathetic. In her experience,she told
me, nearlyall these phenomena occurred in front of
or justwithin the margin of a grove, or row of trees,
which is not at all the case with my own experiences.
One of the cases of this lady may have indicated
a dramatisation of a lapsed memory. She saw a

rather young lady,whose dress had caught fire, and

blazed up suddenly above her head. As the flames
rose all around her, she turned her gaze to the ob- server,
and she told me that the look on her face was

so vivid that she would forgetit. I suggested

never

a look of horror ; but she said,no, that there was no

horror, nor fright, nor pain, but a startled look of

extreme surpriseor astonishment. Some years be-
fore
this the mother of this lady'sdaughter's husband,
an elderlywoman, had been burned to death, in
her own house, and she heroically warned away the
frightenedhousemaids who rushed to her assistance.
But the lady of whom I am speakingwas not there,
did not see it,and had nothingto do with the events
which occurred.
She told me also that she had a dressmaker,who
told her(from some hint, I suppose)that she
had
had these
frequently same of a
experiences, remarkable
 378 SPIRIT AND MATTER

character,and they often gave her much annoy-

that ance
by their persistence.
These phenomena will often continue daily or
nightlyfor months ; then they will cease, and after-
wards
reappear, but I can testify that,in those cases
which I have investigated, neither health,habits,
associations or modes of Ufe have anythingto do with
them.
They are not visions of drowsiness ;
though best
seen with closed eyes; sleepiness and stupidityare
fatal to their production, and cause their ance
disappear-
if one begins to become sleepy. Ordinaryaches
and pains do not affect them, nor does music, noise,
movement or conversation. They do not disappear
with the withdrawal of attention ; they keep moving
along and persisting in their own way, and when the
attention comes back to them they are found to have
progressedin the meanwhile justas actual external
occurrences would
have done.
I will give some brief description of my own periences
ex-

in this class of phenomena, which clearly

lies alongthe dividing line between matter and mind,
and belongsdirectly to psychology, some of the ples
princi-
of which they may serve to elucidate.
*'
In the first place these Visions of the Sane,'*in
my own experienceand in that of others I refer to,
have a remarkable peculiaritythey move "
directly
along their own way, and be directed or con-
cannot trolled

in the least degreeby the volition or conscious-

iness of the visuaHser. Hundreds of times I have
felt that certain visions, then undergoing
Iconsciously
^,X^vchange,would merge into certain others ; but on the
?J- contrary they passed on quitedifferently, not in the
^ ^^ ^ defiance,but simply ignoringor takingno
W'^^J'i^^y
^^ L^l cognisancewhatever of what I had been imagining.
*^ 11 could
)vM violently stop the whole series, by a consider-
^i//^. able mental effort, but so long as they continued,they
"^
were as independentof my conscious ego as if they had
J ,

^rc^^^/been presentedto me by a showman displayinghis

lO^ (^" unknown patterns,or the unrollingof an unknown
^^ " panorama.
at will ; and stillless could
^^jj^^' Nor could I start them
 VISIONS OF THE SANE 379
I determine what they should start with. Here came

in the vital difference between these visions and

revived memories or conscious imaginings. I could
*' *'
make such picturesat will,and used
my to bait
visions, it as
were, but the real ones either never came,
''
at the time,or else my vain imaginings'' disappeared
like a dream, and the solidit were, of a
realities,
as

instantlyfilledthe scene,
totallydifferent character,
and proceeded without
my knowledge of control.
The next peculiarity is that I have never, among
these thousands of forms or faces,seen one which I
could recogniseas ever having seen before. No
relatives, no friends, none of those whose portraitsI
have been familiar with,ever appeared ; and the same
is true, as I ascertained by careful examination,of
those others who have had this same faculty.
They were all strangersto me, and, not only that,
the scenes were all strangeto my recollection.
To discredit Galton's hypothesisthat these were
the unconscious working of an idle half of the brain,
one half creating or reviving, and tossingthe images
over to the recording half,I have usuallyseen a half-
dozen or more separate actions going on at the same
time all over the field, not one accessory to or associ-
ated
with the others,but totallydifferent creations
or presentations, actingtotallydifferent parts,and I
could study one set closely, while I saw the other
going on dimly elsewhere,and then turn to another,
and carefully examine that,and so on at will, precisely
as if the objectsand actions were external. There"
never, also,was a repetition, so far as I know, of the
same scene or circumstance,and I have heard many
conversations going on at the same time, any one of
which I could give my attention to and follow,if
desired.
Galton, and other writers, describing these
phenomena, make no note of spoken words, heard
audibly,so far as consciousness is concerned. But
in my own case I have heard conversations going on
in a number of placesat the same time, and I could
drop one, merelyhearingits hum, and turn to another
to and
listen, so on, as I pleased. I have often,while
 380 SPIRIT AND MATTER
^

other matters, of business,

of invention,
v*^^^ .
Ithinkingover
^^ ^\*rlor
normal heard
experiences, conversations going on,
^"CA*-^*' without
patter-patter-patter, knowing the con- what
i^jj"M- vVersationswere ; but on stopping my own Hne of
'^-^
.y^iJU thought and Hstening,I immediatelyheard this con-
^'
versation,justas I would in a room
^|^^,,,grvi" full of people ;
1^*^^ findingit uninteresting,
as I usuallydid,and relating
m-' to other and unknown folks,and their commonplace
I usuallyreverted
experiences, to my own work, and
let the matter run on. I
gibberish ; the
never heard
conversations were all
intelligible.
Nor did I ever
1^
^
'"
^
hear anything purporting to be revelational, or

or of
spiritualistic, a divine or mysticalnature.
But I was
sometimes suddenly forced into a very
sudden cognisance of these half -heard conversations. I
^:* alwaysfiguredi n the scenes as an observer, apparently
J ^"^ either standingor sitting,in front or alongside. Once
two women were sitting
on the ground in front of me,
but to the right,perhaps a yard or two distant. One
had her back to me, the other faced her vis-a-vis and
^

they were engaged in earnest,and, it seemed, angry

conversation. I
paid no attention to them, when
the one facingme suddenly rose to her feet,flungout
her arm toward me, and, in an angry voice shouted,
'' "
Didyou hear that ?
*'
No ! '* I shouted in return,and I shouted it out
aloud,so that I startled myselfgreatly, for my whole
frame shook with my reply, and waked up my
wife.
Then she sat down, shaking her head, and the
earnest conversation went on as before.
Another time two women occupied a somewhat
similarpositionin front and to the left. They were
conversing earnestly,with their heads together,and
in
nearly whispers. Suddenly the one facingme said
*'
to the other, Hush ! he will hear you I '' The
other rose up from the ground, deliberately
turned
around towards me, and swept her eyes over me in a

contemptuous way from my head to my feet,and said,

**
Well, I don't think much of you.'' I started in to
exculpatemyself,but suddenlyperceiving that it was
but a I forbore.
vision, Indeed,I felt a keen sense of
3^2 SPIRIT AND MATTER

file, and the tall one in the middle was swinging his

arms about to attract attention, which he finally

my
did. As soon as he saw this, he raised his right arm

to its full height, obviously holding something between

his thumb and fingers, and oscillated it to and fro

violently, with the same malicious grin, until they

disappeared in the distance.

In all probability the event was a mere coincidence.

I never observed anything else of an analogous nature.

 \

CHAPTER XLVIII

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGIOUS CONVERSION

Kindred to much of the phenomena which I have

been describing,are those of so-called religious con-
version.

I have been quite familiar with these from

boyhood, as I grew up in region of revivals and

a

camp meetings, and my profound interest was early

awakened by what I had occasion to observe during
many years.
'*
Professor WilliamJames, in his work on The
Varieties of Rehgious Belief,"deals with this subject
in its psychological aspects extensively. He says,
"
in his chapter on this subject, I cannot but think
that the most important step forward that has
occurred in psychology since I have been a student of
that science is the discovery, first made in 1886, that
in certain subjects at least, there is not only the
consciousness of the ordinary field, with its usual
centre and margin, but an addition thereto in the
shape of a set of memories, thoughts and feelings,
which are extra-marginal and outside of the primary
consciousness altogether,but yet must be classed as

conscious facts of some sort, able to reveal their

presence by unmistakable signs. I call this the

most important step forward because, unlike
the other advances which psychology has made,
this discovery has revealed to us an entirelyunsus-
pected

pecuUarity in the constitution of human

nature.'*
This subconscious
department of the human
mind is the storehouse and workshop, the creative
manufactory, the adapter, the controller and director
of all the unconscious functions and processes of the
livingbody, the source, or at least the channel, of
3^3
384 SPIRIT AND MATTER

genuine invention,inspiration, spiritualpower, and

religious and moral life.
Many persons seem to overlook this rich treasure,
ignoringits presence, knowing nothing of its value,
denying even its existence ; but they are, though
stifled to the extent it can be stifled,under its control
nevertheless.
In
crystalvision we indubitably have a mechanism
by which we can consciously tap this treasuryof sub-
consciousnes
which normally only appears in vague
and mystifyingdreams ; for when sleepcomes, the
surface consciousness rests,and the subconsciousness
takes entire control,and what passes then we only
know flitting
as gleams.
But crystalvision, by employing a trick, as it were,

connects these two departments of the mind, the

conscious and the subconscious,so that the latter
can be openly read out, to some considerable extent,
by the former.
Gazing steadily into the depths of the mysterious
crystal(itneed not be a crystal, but it must be some-
thing

that can fix and hold the consciousness, and yet

not dismiss it entirely), the surface consciousness be- comes
quiescent, as the envelopingmist rises.
Then, this disturber having been removed, the
subconsciousness reveals its hidden strata, and the
watching consciousness,like an eavesdropper, ex-
poses

the secrets revealed before its gaze.

Some such phenomena are connected with the
"
Visions of the Sane,''and phenomena of
with the
conversion as well. of the subjects of this
Many
latter, which I have had opportunityto study, were
friends and acquaintances,other whom I knew were

from the lowest and most ignorantstrata of society,

others were able and intelligent men, women and
children, and persons whose previouslife had been of
the coldest and most critical, or blasted by passionor
degraded by vice. And I have been able to follow
the lives of many of those for years afterwards.
I do not desire to enter into a discussion of these
phenomena, but only to point out certain marked
features bearingdirectly on questionsof psychology.
 RELIGIOUS CONVERSION 385
A remarkable circumstance which I have often
observed, and cases of which I have personally
'' '*
examined, is that one of these mourners becomes
suddenly rigid,catalepticand unconscious,while
" *'
stillunconverted,but while convicted of sin in all
its horror and intensity.
I know that many of these spells of unconscious-
ness
were completeand general. These subjects often
layin this state for one, two or even more hours,when
'*
they instantaneously came to,''and some process
had been evidently going on within, for they awoke
'* *'
saved and triumphant.
Some organisingpower must have been intelli- gently
directing these changes while the conscious-
ness,
as a controlling intellectual factor,was drawn.
with-

Now, of these
whom
people,
some I saw and knew,
had been born and brought up in absolute illiteracy,
and among the worst possiblesurroundings ; yet this
sudden change was permanent. The whole trend of
their lives was at once changed,and they never lapsed
re-

under temptationsto return to the old life.

In the case of others the effects were temporary, and
the old associations were powerfulenough to subvert,
or the spiritualpower was not strongenough to resist,
'*
and they became backsliders." Many of these
became subjectsof conversion afterwards,at other
revivals, and some over and over.
In other cases the everydayconsciousness seemed
for a time to control the subconscious,by what is
called force of habit. in many cases the force of
But
habit was immediatelylost,and new forces took its
place the forces of spiritual
"
control,which broke up
these habits at once, as hypnoticsuggestion will often
do permanently,in such cases as the drinkinghabit,
for example.
I have personallyinvestigated many cases of each
sort,and have read of others.
Among the Red Indians converted to Christianity,
for instance,the Wyandots, a mixed tribe,and the
Eskimo, there evidently was no physicalstructure of
habit,or heredity,
to produce any change to Christian
2B
386 SPIRIT AND MATTER

practiceas a and yet,among

reversion, these peoples,
the action of thisspiritual force acting, in a state of un-
consciousness

in some cases, instantaneously, was able

at once to displace centuries of habit and heredity,
and substitute an entirely new mode of living, new

principlesand new practice, and this not upon human

suggestion,but purelyby something working to the
surface from within.
The scientificstudy of these phenomena, and of the
great psychicaland kindred movements described by
'*
Dr Hecker in his Epidemics of the Middle Ages,"
show that the phenomena of pscyhology are the
dominating factors,wherever we choose to probe.
There are some to whom spiritualism is foolishness,
and others to whom it is a stumblingblock,who seek
to explainthese phenomena by auto-suggestion. But
this is mere jugglingwith words, unless we first
explain auto-suggestion.It is certain that these
phenomena do not pertainto auto-suggestion in any
sense in which auto-suggestion has ever had definite
meaning. Most of these cases of conversion,as I
personallyknow, were not only againstbelief,but
againsteven the will to believe. These converts have
fought againstconviction by every factor of shame,
credulity, feeling,knowledge,association and desire ;
they have struggled with all their power and in horror
even, againstthis degrading blow (as it seemed to
them),which often has fallen upon them like a bomb- shell
following a fleeing coward from battle.
Certainly there was no auto-suggestion in the sub-
consciousne
from the consciousness itself. If it be
held that it was auto-suggestion
an from one stratum
of the subconscious to another,that is the same as to
explaina gastritis as caused by one membrane flaming
in-
the other. No, there are greatpsychical and
dynamic agencieslike that which swept Saul of Tarsus
instantaneouslyinto a new spiritual life,and in which,
priorto the deed, there were not even the elements
inside Paul's personality out of which to manufacture
an auto-suggestion, except as one may prove the
presence of light by its absence.
These phenomena are clearly of that greatpsychical
 RELIGIOUS CONVERSION 387

class which has produced so if not all, of the

many,

great ethnological and anthropological changes which

have modified and elevated mankind, and which are

exemplified wherever the study of comparative ligions

re-

carries us.
 CHAPTER XLIX

BIBLICAL EVIDENCE

To show how far so-called "Rational Theology" has

divergedfrom the divine revelations on which it purports
to be based,I will from Chapterxv.,
quote the following
entitled "The Word of God/' of Mrs Professor De
"
Morgan's From Matter to Spirit/'This is the work
for which her husband, the celebrated professorof
mathematics Cambridge University,
at wrote the well-
known preface of forty-five
pages, composed largely from
his own experiences, from which I have alreadyquoted
several times in previous chapters.The following is the
quotation from Mrs De Morgan'sbook : "

"
What is the meaning of the phrase, the Word of

God ? Within the churches and without the churches,

appliedvaguelyby honest religionists, and falsely by
dishonest ones, the simplephrase,which in old times
conveyed the idea of the Messengerof Peace,has become
the watchword of strife.
"
words have lost their firstimportas the know-
The ledge
of internal spiritualthingshas died away. It is
an instance of what has been alreadysaid,that with the
growth of time, expressions and symbols,losingtheir
essential meaning, are ill used by the theologian and
rejected by the philosopher.
"We must look to the Bible, its acknowledged
record,for the meaning of the Word, and we may find,as
in other cases, that when its specific
sense becomes clear
all the learned rubbish which has accumulated round the
phrasewill fall away, takingwith it the confusion and
discord from argument unenUghtened by
inseparable
spirit.
"The Hebrew debar,translated Wordy bears in its
388
390 SPIRIT AND MATTER
"
We will now turn to the New Testament. . . .
We
must remember, that the Hebrew debar and its Greek
synonym lagoscomprehend every degreeof efflux from
the source whether
of life, it results in the formation
of a world, in a propheticdream, or in a healing
miracle.
"The ApostleJohn'sdescription of The Word is
immeasurablymore perfect and more sublime than any
attempt at explanation
ever made by scholars or theo-
logians.

" ^
I. In the beginning
was the Word,and the Word was

with God and the Word was God.

J
" '
2. The same was in the beginningwith God,
" ^
3. All
things were made by Him, and without
Him
was not anything made that was made.
"
; and the life the
^
4. In Him [orin it]was life was

light ofmen.
"
5. And the light
^
shineth in darkness ; and the dark-ness
comprehendedit not.
" ^

9. The true Lightwas that which cominginto the

^

world,lighteth every man.'

"The Word of God, then, is the phrase used in
Scriptureto express the outpouringefflux from our
heavenlyFather in its creating, life-giving,and inspiring
energy, and in its redeeming and sanctifying power ;
and the Bible is the history of the Word in all its degrees
of action and modes of manifestation, from the simple
processes of magnetichealingand clairvoyance to its
full and perfectmanifestation in the person of the
Saviour,the Word made flesh.
"
If this is true we may expect to find allusions to
various magnetic and spiritual processes in the Bible.
And we shall not be disappointed. I will firstbringto- gether
a few instances of spiritual action in its lowest
forms.
"
In 2 Kings v. 10 we find
reference to mesmerism a

made in such words as to lead to the belief that it was

commonly practised by the prophets, who were also in
earlytimes called healers. Naaman the Syrianhaving
been sent to the King of Israel in order to be cured of
his leprosy,Elisha shows him how much more powerful
is the healingwhich he than
practises the mesmerism
 BIBLICAL EVIDENCE 391
which was expected. The prophetdesires Naaman to
wash seven times in Jordan.
" *
Verse 11, But Naaman was wroth, and said.
Behold I thought, he will surely come out to me, and stand,
and call on the name of the Lord his God, and move up and
down his hand [marginalreading]over the part,and
^
recover the leper.
"We find another instance in the historyof the
*
prophetElisha,of whom Jehosaphatsays, The Word
ofGod is with him.' Hearing of the death of the widow's
son, Elisha first sends his staff to Gehazi,desiring him
to layit on the face of the child. (Allmesmerisers have
seen similar processes.) But this is ineffectual, and
Gehazi returns,telling his master of the failure.
" ^
2 Kings iv. 33. He (Elisha) went in therefore, and
shut the door upon them twain,and prayedunto the Lord,
And he went up, and layupon the child, and put his mouth
upon his mouth,and his eyes upon his eyes, and his hands
upon his hands : and he stretched himselfupon the child ;
and the fleshof the child waxed warm. Then he returned,
and walked in the house to and fro; and went up, and
stretched himselfupon him : and the child sneezed seven
times,and the child openedhis eyes'
"
I need hardlyrefer to the direct healing of our Lord
and His Apostles.But a few words are necessary to
show that even these effects of the vitalising power of the
Word were processes of which the immediate cause and
agency can be traced. If by miracle we understand an

act not coming under this then assuredly

definition, the
cures, and even the of the dead by the living
raising
Word, were not more miracles than the birth of a child
or the
growthof a tree. But their cause, thoughreal and
apparent,lay far beyond the reach of educated or un- educated

humanity, unassisted by spiritual power.

When the Saviour was among the very effort of
believers,
' '
His will,uttered in Damsel, I say unto thee.Arise !
poured life into the lifeless girl; and in like manner
His Word raised the widow's son and the entombed
Lazarus. When He blind from birth,
restored the man

a process was used,and the clay which contained the

vital influence was to remain on the eyes tillwashed off
at the Pool of Siloam. But we learn in Mark vi. 5 that
392 SPIRIT AND MATTER
'
He could then do no mightywork, save that He laid His
hands on a few sick folkand healed them' The corre-
sponding

says, 'He
verse in Matthew
did not many
because oftheir unbelief'
mightyworks there,
*'We see, then, that even the Word itself needs
somethingin the recipient to make it effective,that
somethingis without which we
faith, can do nothing,
but with which we may by God's help move tains.
moun-

"
I have traced the Word of God from its lowest
degreeof
to itshighest healing.We find italso in earthly
clairvoyance and in heavenly vision. For the first,
when Saul had lost his asses, he went to the prophetto
*
find where they were.' And this was called enquiring
of God equally with the most importantconsultations.
"
Every part of the Bible is full of spiritual vision
in every degree,so that the enumeration of instances
would only cease when the greaterpart of Scripture had
been copied out. After earthlyclairvoyance, which
we find in Samuel and Baalam, we may mention divining
"
in a cup or crystal, for the process is the same (see
Genesis xliv. 5, etc.).
''
Simpleimagery,such as has often been met with
in dreams and visions in these days,is found in the vision
of Peter,by which he was directed to instruct the family
of the Gentile Cornelius, who was himself also spiritually
told where to find the welcome teacher. Acts x.-xi."
"
A very simplesuggestive vision was given to the
*
ApostlePaul,Acts xvi. : There stood a man of Mace-
donia
: and frayedhim, saying,Come over into Mace-
donia,
and helpus'
"The sudden conversion of the Apostle Paul was
broughtabout in a manner which is intelligible to those
who have witnessed many spiritual manifestations in
various forms and degrees.
"The outpouringon the day of Pentecost was
attended with the usual concomitant phenomena a "

rushingmighty wind, an appearance of flame or fire in

the form of cloven tongues,and then the influx of the
spirit.
"
The spiritual writing(Exodus xxxii. ; 2 Chronicles
xxi. : I Chronicles xxviii. ; Daniel v.)is mentioned in
 BIBLICAL EVIDENCE 393

Scripture in every degree, from by the hand of a that

prophet to the direct impressof the fingerof God.
''
In Exodus xxviii. we find long directions for the
construction of an ephod,or priest's dress,but there is,
I beheve, onlyone passage, verses 7 and 8 in i Samuel
'

XXX., of the manner in which it was used. / pray thee

bring me hither the ephod. And Abiathar broughtthe
ephodto David. And
enquired David
at the Lord.'
"
It appears by this that the ephod was not a cere-
monial

robe,but a real instrument,and David could use

it as well as the highpriest, for he enquiredat the Lord,
or induced in himself a spiritual state,as we have seen
can be done, though in a lower degree, by gazingat a
crystal."
(Soalso, authorities declare,were used the two stones,
the Urim and Thummim^ which the high priestbore
upon his shoulders,and which were called essen, the
oracle.)
''
The layingon of hands should not be unnoticed in
an enumeration of the various forms in which we have
seen a resemblance the incidents of Scripture
between
historyand the modem phenomena. I have said that
the power is always strengthened, I should have said
that it is apparentlycommunicated, by the hand of a
medium laid on the wrist of another to produce writing,
or on the shoulder to produce vision. A fingerof a

powerfulmedium will convey the current to another

person. How often this fact is

mentioned, or how
important a part it bears in the historyof the Word, I
*
need not say. In Deut. xxxiv. 9, And Joshua the son
of Nun was fullof the Spiritof Wisdom ; forMoses had
"
laid his hands upon him.'
See also,2 Timothy i. and the very numerous other
instances in the New Testament referred to in the author's
text. The author continues :
**We look down
supreme contempt on the
with
heathen,who attributed to their deities actions which
at this time bringmen to the gallows; but for those who
have seen the gloryof God in the face of Christ,
we are

no better than the heathen. We malign and misrepre-

sent
the God whom we worship. I had lately instance
an

of this blasphemy of the Holy Ghost in a letter from a

394 SPIRIT AND MATTER

friend,who writes of the little children in a fishing

villagefar from London, 'They are well taught as "

to conduct, and are good, kind-hearted little crea-

tures,

who sit round and sing hymns about blood

and wrath and damnation with the utmost good
"
humour/
The author then asks this momentous
question, which
applies not only to the Jewishand the Christian bibles,
but to those of all ages and peoples, and to the religious
beliefs and practices of all peoplesthroughoutall time,
and to all the results produced by such bibles, such
religious beliefs, and such religious practices, of which
"
the French rationalist, Le Bon, in his Psychologyof
" ''
Peoples says : ReHgious beliefs have always con- stituted

the most important element of the hfe of peoples,

and in consequence of their history. At all the ages ...

of humanity,in ancient times as in modem times,the

fundamental questionshave always been religious
questions. If humanity could allow all its gods to die,
it might be said of such an event, as regardsits conse-
quences,

it would be the most importantevent that had

taken placeon the surface of our planetsince the birth
of the first civilisation.
"
The gift of the gods to man, and it is a gift
which
they alone have been able to endow him with up to now,
is a state of mind which allows of happiness.No philo-
sophy
has ever been able as yet to realise such an

achievement.
*'
Historyshows us that peopledo not long survive
the disappearanceof their gods. The civilisations that
are bom with them die with them. There is nothingso
destmctive as the dust of dead gods.*'
The followingis the momentous questionwhich
Mrs De Morgan asks in closingher remarkable book,
" ''
From Matter to Spirit :"
"
Is all that I have described" as
spiritualment,
develop-
with all its
accompanying processes and trials,
due to 'unconscious cerebration,' or self-delusion,
or

irregular nervous action, or imposture ?

"
Then the Bible is a history on a largescale,and
of great antiquity, of unconscious cerebration, irregular
nervous action, and imposture. It is hard
self-delusion,
 BIBLICAL EVIDENCE 395
to say in what way those who pronounce the judgment
can escape the conclusion.
"
The thoughtmay occur " If it be true that the Bible
isonly a historyof these mesmeric and
psychological
phenomena, it loses at once all its authority, and its
sacred character. These mesmeric and psychological
phenomena are partsof a greatwhole,and are found to
be a connecting link between what has been called the
world of matter and the world of spirit.And the
ascent from matter to spirit is not difficult, neither are
their respective boundaries undefined, if we remember
that matter is the depositof the life force, and that it
becomes dead, and falls back into other forms,only to
be acted on by new forces in the constant outpouring of
spirit from the Fountain of life. We need not appre- hend
a diminished reverence for Scripture. The Bible
will be found full of instruction, comfort,and hope for
every soul in need, and in every degree of spiritual
opening, and all the more when the obscure and mysteri-ous
passages, whose meaning has been lost, are restored
to lifeby a better knowledgeof the states theydescribe,
and when the thingsof the Spirit are recognisedin the
world as they are treated of in the history of the Word
of God."
In direct line with the momentous questionasked
by Mrs De Morgan, I quote the following
from the pen
*'
of Sir OHver Lodge,in the Proceedingsof the Society
for PsychicalResearch,*'part Iviii., June 1909.
''
Good and earnest though moderatelyintelligent
religious people sometimes seek to pour scorn upon
o f
the reality any of these apparent communications
" not for any
scientific reason, but for reasons born
of prejudice.They think that it is not a worthy
' ' '
occupationfor justmen made perfect who have
'
entered into felicityto be remembering trivial and
minute details,under circumstances of exceptional
for
difficulty, purpose of proving to those left
the
behind the fact of survival and the continuance of
personalidentity. It is taken for grantedthat saints
ought to be otherwise occupiedin their new and lofty
and favoured conditions.
*'
But is it not legitimate
seriously, to ask these
396 SPIRIT AND MATTER

good people whether, if an opportunity of service to

brethren arises, an effort to seize it may not be made

even by a saint ? Whether this notion of perennial

service is not in accordance with their own doctrines
and beliefs ? And whether they are not impressed by
that clause in the creed of most Christians which

roundly asserts that their Master descended into

Hades ? for purposes which in another place are

suggested. Whereby
they may learn that, even after
such a Life and Death as that. Felicity was not entered
into save after an era of further personal service of

an efficient kind. Those who interpret the parables

in such a way as to imagine that dignified idleness
is the occupation of eternity ^that there will be "

nothing to do hereafter but idly to enjoy the beatific

contemplation and other rewards appropriate to a
well-spent life or to well-held creeds, free from morse
re-

of every kind, and without any call for future

work and self-sacrifice such people will probably"

some day find themselves mistaken, and will realise

that as yet they have formed a very inadequate con- ception

of what is meant by that pregnant phrase,

* ''
the Joy of the Lord.'
Who is there whose heart has not thrilled in the
''
reading of Leigh Hunt's divinely beautiful Abou Ben

Adhem,*' who awakened to find, within his room,

an angel writing, in a book of gold, the names of those
who love the Lord ?

' * *
" And is mine one ? said Abou. "

Nay, not so/

Replied the
angel. Abou spoke more low,
'
But cheerly still ; and said, I pray thee, then,
Write me as one that loves his fellow-men.*
The angel wrote, and vanished. The next night
It came again, with a great wakening light,
And showed the names whom love of God had blest ;
all the I "
And lo ! Ben Adhem's name led rest
398 SPIRIT AND MATTER

I have cited HerbertSpencer,in his final message, in

dealingwith ultimate questionsfor the first time, that
our consciousness is a specialised and individualised form
of that Infinite and Eternal Energy, and that the lesser
was derived from the greater,and that, if eternal is
predicated of the one, it must be predicated of the other.
And I have cited also from Dr W. B. Carpenter,
much to his prejudice as an unbiassed scientific man.
It affords me now, as with the others named, pleasure
to measure Carpenterhimself againsthis more formal
writings, and givehim credit for what most readers will
interpret as a like concession, when the crisisof disbelief
had been squarelyencountered.
It is well known that, in dealing with these
phenomena, he laid all or nearlyall his stress on what
" *'
he called unconscious cerebration
that is to say, the
"

brain,or, at all events, the brain

action of the physical
as a physicalproducer of supernormal phenomena,
precisely as it appears to be the producer of normal
phenomena. In his letter to the Dialectical Society,
dated 24th December 1869,he, however, narrows his
claims, concluding his abstract with the following
significant language,which I am sure no psychologist
can read to-day without perceivingthat this dis- tinguished
but often unfair,author, in the crisis
confrontinghim, made almost the same concessions
as were made by the other opponents named. This is
his language :
"
And every course of self-discipline thus steadilyand
honestlypursued,tends not merely to clear the mental
vision of the individual^ but to ennoble the race ; by
developingthat power of immediate insight^ which, in
man's highest phase of existence, will not only supersede
the laborious operations of his intellect, but will reveal
to him truths and gloriesof the unseen, which the
' "
intellect alone can see but as througha glass darkly.'
It seems then that after all theories and hypotheses
of automatism, self-constructive idealism, materialism,
empiricism, self-causation, nature, chance,accident and
agnosticism have been run out and failed, there is left
but one single residuum,identical in every case, and that
 CONSIDERATION OF SUBJECT 399
this is divinityand
transcendentalism, spiritualism.
We will thus come, after the most elaborate research,
and the testing into absurdity of all alternatives, back
to that primal truth recognised in all ages among all
peoples,and appealingdirectly to what Dr Carpenter
''
called that power of inmiediate insight, which,in man's
highestphase of existence, will not only supersedethe
laborious operations of his intellect, but will reveal to
him truths and glories of the unseen, which the intellect
* '*
alone can see but as througha glassdarkly/
These truths and glories thus revealed by immediate
insight, and which the intellect alone can never see, or
see but darkly,are the bases of every religion which
exists or ever has
existed ; which truths have made
religionuniversal in all placesand ages ; and, after all
the labours of science, scepticism, atheism,materialism
and agnosticismhave been exhausted,we find,still
revealed,to-day,unassailed and unassailable,
the same
fundamental truths as those primalones of the past.
The criteria of truth ? Are there such ? and if so,
in what do they consist, and what is their value ?
'*
Asked Pilate,''What is truth ? Is there no
answer ? If we are of God, then there is an answer ;
if we are not of God, then the
does not matter. answer

But if we are of God let us not ignoreHim and His

revelation ; let us not forgetthe old Scotch farmer :
"
All these years God has been lookingat us, and all
these years we have been shaming Him.*' For that is
the possible priceand penaltyof free-will. God does
not want puppets.
Not alone the future of each one of dependsupon
us

these truths,but
the future of every peopleand nation,,
of the race, and, if man
and, finally, is the culmination
of the universe,then of the universe,itself; for we are
all bound up, willy-nilly,
together; the solidarity of the
universe is the of science^
great dominatingprinciple
philosophy, ethics and religion, nay, of humanity.
Says Walt Whitman in his ''Memoranda of the War" :
"
As onlythat individual becomes truly greatwho under-
stands
well that,while completein himself in a certain
sense, he is but part of the divine, eternal scheme,and
whose speciallife and laws are adjustedto move in
400 SPIRIT AND MATTER

harmoniousrelation with the generallaws of nature,and

with the moral law, the deepestand highest
especially
of all,and the last vitality
of man or State "
^so those
nations may only become the greatestand
most tinuous,
con-

by well their harmonious

understanding tions
rela-
with entire humanity and history,
and all their
laws and progress, and sublimed with the creative
thought of Deity, through all time, past,present and
future. Thus will theyexpand to the amplitudeof their
destiny,and become splendidillustrations and culminat-
ing
partsof the cosmos, and of civilisation/'
There are criteria of truth,but not in mere tions
specula-
frompassingphenomena,ignoring their source and
destiny, not in hypotheses shifting with every swing of
the scientific pendulum, not from what Lord Salisbury
described as vague and flickering lights in an ocean of
impenetrabledarkness,nor in Hume's showers of dis- connected
"
sensations, nor in Berkeley's idealism ing
shift-
with the shifting present,"nor in Locke's tabula
rasa sketched upon by our own weak, fragmentaryand
most often worthless experiences, but the vast,moving
panorama of the ages, a work worthy of the supreme
divine, and onlypossible in source, movement, operation,
purpose and destinyto the supreme divine,and with
every human being linked therewith as working parts
"
and co-partners of One StupendousWhole." Here we
can rest.
Of the criteria of says, in his
truth,Professor Bowen
"Modem Philosophy," "To Leibnitz belongsthe credit
of being the first to pointout and establish these two
criteria,
or proofsof Innate Ideas,to wit,
tests and
universality and necessity.Whatever is universally
the
true,true not merelyso far as my experience, or as

experience of the whole human race, has gone, but true

everywhere, and at all times,true imder allcircumstances
and conditions, and without any exceptions of limitations
whatever" that is an innate truth,or one which had its
and was not impressed
originin the soul itself, upon us
throughthe senses, or from the world without. Again,
whatever is necessarily and absolutely true" that is,

so true that neither you nor

I can even imagineit to be
false under circumstances whatever " that also is
any
 CONSIDERATION OF SUBJECT 401

innate,
or had in the very constitution of the
its origin
mind. Now these two criteria are alwaysfound to go
together, each involving the other,so that,in fact, they
coincide and form but a singletest. Whatever cognition
is,must for that very reason be universal ; and in like
manner it could not be absolutely universal, if it were
not also necessary. And the number of truths is not
small which possess these two decisive characteristics ;
whole Sciences are made up of them alone.'*
Yet many of these truths,he says, are not learned
until in later life; often not until these sciences are
"
studied. But he adds : What of that ? When you
learned them, did you acceptthem as true merelybecause
the book or your teacher said so, or did the instruction
so received merely direct your attention towards,and
bring out into distinct
consciousness, what was already
in
implicitly your mind, and what was then first nised,
recog-
or known over again,
as restingon its own evidence,
shining
by its own far down
light, in the recesses of your
''
intellect ?
Leibnitz founded his whole system on the of
validity
these criteria,as establishingan immutable knowledge
of God as the originator, sustainer and preserver, and of
our own soul as the receiver of God's knowledge.
And Carlyle expressedthe same truth in sayingthat
'*
No liecan endure for ever."
"
The late President McCosh, in his Criteria of
Different Kinds of Truth,"laysdown three tests, which,
taken together, will establish any truth absolutely, of
that kind of truth which we are entitled to assume
without mediate proof that is,directly. "

The first criterion is self-evidence that is to say, "

one in which we perceivean objectto exist by merely

lookingat it,as that of our own or exist-
consciousness, ence
of self. We are convinced that we need no further
proofof such truths, nor would outside evidence add to
the strength of our conviction. This is so obvious and
self-evident,even at second-hand, that if a man persists
in believing that he is dead,when we know that he is
alive,
we either put that man into an insane hospital, or

cut off his alcohol. The thingis simplyincredible.

Now it has been often asserted, and is a truth of this
2 c
402 SPIRIT AND MATTER

nature, that every man, takenpoint,or imder

at some

some circumstances, and irrespective of his belief in

externally presentedfaiths,is to some extent stitious.
super-
This perceptionincludes many forms, and
manifests itselfin the most unexpectedways, but there
are very few,if any, who will assert that theyare totally
unaffected by such influences, and in these exceptional
cases they only claim that they are exempt by having
reasoned themselves out of these notions ; the thinness
of this veneer, and its deceptive
character,brought
are

out at once by a swift change in life, an overwhelnung

disaster, or the sudden developmentof radically new

and startling conditions,as a sMpwreck,an earthquake,

an incomprehensible darkness, o r the roar and rush of
an angry and threatening sea. As Shakespearesays,
"
Conscience makes cowards of us all,"and conscience
is but that inner voice which the surface consciousness
only knows as a But
superstition. it is also an mutable
im-
and universal truth.
What would mankind be without sentiment ? And
yet,is sentiment but a superstition ? A recent writer,
"
Joel Chandler Harris,beautifully says : It is a rule
that everythingbeautiful and preciousin this world
should have mystery attached to it. There is the en- during

mystery of art, the mystery that endows plain

flesh and blood with genius. A littlechild draws you
by its beauty ; there is a mystery unfathomable in its
eyes. You enter a home, no matter how fine, no matter
how humble ; it may be built of logs, and its furnishings
may be of the poorest; but if it is a home, a real home,
you will know it unmistakablythe moment you step
across the threshold. Some subtle essence, as mysteri-
ous
as thoughtitself, will find its way to your mind and
enlighten your instinct. You will know, however fine
the dwelling, whether the spirit of home dwells there."
All this is in one sense, but a very high sense, super- stition
" that is to say, it cannot be worked out by logic,
or demonstrated by reason. It exists alone,it stands
above, like our knowledge of self,directly, and by its
own self-evidence. So mother-love,our abhorrence of
cannibalism, our patriotism, civilisation, religion, honour,
honesty,self-respect, decency, manhood and woman-
 CONSIDERATION OF SUBJECT 403

hood, all these have only the self-same basis,supersti-

tion
" **
; they are all superstitions; they stand above
the brute man, for that is what the word signifies,but
theymake him the divine man. To the materialist these
notions are dyspepsia-bomghosts; to the spiritualist
they are the most real,most original and divine of all
created or implantedthings.
The second criterion of truth is necessity.That is
to say, physical science takes cognisance of allit can bring
within its grasp and analyse; but it concedes, and must
concede,that behind its phenomena lie whole realms of
causes and effects, of forces and energies, of space and
time,which, in order to make our knowledgecomplete,
demand to be explained, and physicssimply ignores
them, and yet they constitute all the fundamentals of
nature, while science stillacknowledgestheir necessity
and overwhelming importance. If these are non-

physical,then they are truths incontestably trans-

cendental.
If agnosticism is simplyknow-nothing-ism,
then this greatuniverse of the physically unseen and un-
known,

which liesbehind and allaround,and even within,

the visible phenomena of nature,is not the less real, but
in fact the more real,and, viewed with relation to an
eternal time and an illimitable space, the only real.
And this great truth is demanded and positedby
necessity, and cannot be questioned or denied. The
" "
stone wall of the agnostics is onlya stone wall in the
self-limitedview of those who have merely,from a false
perspective, imaginedthe wall. How many false views
disappearas we approach them ! Those who can see
beyond this imaginarywall,and use their insight, see
truths and glorieswhich science,by its claimed
''agnosticism/' fails to see, and these are they,and
alwayshave been,who are the kingsand rulers of men,
and not those galley-slaves who sit self-chained in dark-
ness,
and pullthe unintelligent oar.
The third criterion is universality ; that the truth
in question is and ever has been believed by all men. It
is the universal consensus of humanity to which
spiritualists appeal, and ithas been well said that nothing
imiversally believed by all men, and throughall human
ages, has ever been based on anythingbut truth. From
404 SPIRIT AND MATTER

this consensus the appealmeets with universal assent

allthroughthe past and present; and on these three
criteria,
in which all the facts agree, spiritualists
have a
rightto hold that the truth has been estabHshed,irre-
spective
of the vast flood of universal demonstrative
even

which equally
evidence, supports its conclusions.
Everyonewho believes in luck,as contradistinguished
from chance,or in genius, or conscience,or self-sacrifice
for the sake of others ; everyone who feels remorse, or
is influenced to higherthingsby aspiration ; everyone
who thinks a prayer in distress,
or turns to something
higherand better than man in calamityand sorrow, is
at heart spiritualist,
a be his avowed faith what it may.
The hypothesesof animism, or a world-soul, or a

soul of nature, every theoryof angelsor demons, or of

influx and efflux, every proposed h5^othesis on which
transcendental facts are sought to be explained, meet
with as earnest consideration from spiritualists as from
those who announce them. There is no antagonism
here, and further research is gladlywelcomed, wherever
the truth of these facts may lead.
But there are three great classes of underlying
phenomena which are stronglyin favour of belief, to
that extent at least, in individual spirits.In the first
place,these intelligences, when manifesting themselves,
universally claim to be the departed surviving spirits
of the dead, and seek to identify themselves and to
establish their identity in every possible manner. It is
difficultto believe,if these phenomena are merelyresults
of extra-human but non-individualised forces, that such
a persistent and overwhelming course of deception,
simplelyingin fact,should be universally carried on,
to no possible purpose it would appear.
And, secondly, the facts of prophecy or prevision,
among these phenomena, which relate to individual
experiencesyet to appear, can hardly be explained
except on the ground of conscious individuality on the
part of the unseen communicator, for clairvoyance is
individual in the clairvoyant, who can but repeat
whatever the agencies with which he may be in contact,
limited or universal, influence him to say, of the un- known

future. And thirdly, in the well-known pheno-

 GENERAL INDEX OF SUBJECTS AND AUTHORITIES

Abercrombie, J., On unlimited Arnold, Sir Edwin, A body of well-

scepticism, 126 established facts, 250
"
" Is the part of a contracted mind, 126 Author, Answer to allegation, Hard
Agnosticism, Results in the Church, 38 on Science," 177-178
"
Multiplication of sects, 38 Authorities cited "

"
Loss of faith, 38 Abercrombie, 126
" The stone wall an imaginary Aguilar, 301
one, 403 Alderman, 285-287
Aguilar, Don Sanchez de. His tions,
qualifica- Arnold, 250
301 Arago, 126
"
Investigation of Yucatan geist
polter- Archimedes, 147
case, 301 Author, 177-178
Alderman, Frank R., Experiments in Bacon, 152, 153, 155
externalising the consciousness Baer, 181
under hypnosis, 285-287 Balbiani, 181, 183
Animism, The hypothesis of World- Balfour, 181
soul considered, 404 Barker, 150
Anthropology, Study of, 9 Barnett, 39
" Deals with human testimony in the Barrett, 181, 224, 225, 277-285,
past, 302 279-281
Apparitions, Apparitional case by Dean Bateson, 225-226
of Medical College, 340 Bayley, 295, 339-342, 368
"
Case reported by Professor Barrett, Berkeley, 209, 212
F.R.S., 342-344 Bible, 9, 22, 23, 25, 55, 105-106,
""
Two apparitional cases by T. A. 92-109, 388-393
180, 270,
Trollope, 344-347 Binet, 181, 182-183, 183
"
Case reported by F. W. H. Myers, Bingham, 54
347-349 Bois-Reynard, 181
"
Case reported by the Author, 357- Booth, 348-349
364 Boris-Sidis, i8i
" Experiences of the Author with Bosco, 253
another medium, 365-371 Bowen, 146, 400
"
Clinical examination of medium Bradley, 28, 29
after trance, 369 Bramwell, 181
"
Question of hallucinations sidered,
con- Brine, 273
364 Brinton, 56, 181, 273
"
Means used by apparition for Broca, 57
identification, 357 Brooks, i8i
A priori.Acceptance without stration
demon- Browning, 216

; fatal to science, 9 Burton, 252

" "
" The thimble -
rig of pseudo- Buchner, 135
science, 71 Biitchli, 181
"
The ban against scientific advance, Bunge, 181

76 Butler, 181
"
" Compared with odium theologi- Calvin, 24
cum," 159 Cano, 273
"
Romanes on unbelief ; due to Canons, Church of England, 5
indolence or prejudice, 252 Carlyle, 265, 266, 401
" Doubt may be scientific ; denial on Carpenter, W. B., 252, 398
a priori never, 252 Carpenter, J. Estlin, 82-83
Arago, On scientific doubt contrasted Chamberlain, 307-309
with incredulity, 126 Charcot, 284
" Reserve, above all, a necessity in Christ, Jesus, 5, 7, 25, 26, 28, 96, lOl,
dealing with the animal tion,
organisa- 102, 193, 20I

126 Chopin, 49

407
4o8 GENERAL INDEX OF
Authorities cited continued" Authorities cited " continued
Church, 65, 66, 128 Herron, 38
Churchill, 209 Herschel, 45. 158, 175-176, 223, 352
Cicero, 48 Hilprecht, 181
Comte, 83, 84, 103, 205, 209, 210 Hockley, 251-252
Conn, 52, 53, 181, 218, 225, 235 Hodgson, 181, 295-299, 327-329
Cook, 257-260 Holmes, 149, 230
Crockett, Davy, 172 Hough, 316-320
Crockett, S. R., 187, 188 Huggins, 236
Crooke, 386 Hume, 88-91, 205, 208
Crookes, 105, 181, 235, 236-237, Hunt, 396
237-238, 239 Huxley, 10, 11, 74-75, 90, 103, 113-
Crossland, 250 177, 212-213,
114, 397
Cuvier, 133 Hyslop, 181
Dabney, 287 Illman, 335-336
Darwin, 85, 150-151, 219, 223 Ingersoll, 119
Davey, 250 Irenaeus, 29
Davies, 5, 57-58 Jalalu'dDin, 242
De Morgan, 125, 231, 232, 290, 291- James, 4, 59, 181, 223, 224, 383
388-393, 395
292, Janet, 176, 181
Dennett, 195-196, 267 Jevons, 110-114, 124, 127, 290
Descartes, 206 Johnson, Samuel, 309-310
De Vries, 181 Johnson, AUce, 310
Dujardin, 181 Jordan, 181
Dudley, 34o-34i Kant, 158, 222
Du Prel, 36, 181 Kelvin, Lord, 94-95, i8i, 200
Ehrenberg, 181 Kepler, 69
Ellinwood, 58 Kidd, 103, 106, 181
Emerson, 161, 289 King, President, 181
Engelmann, 181 King, John, 318-320
Erasmus, 23 King, Katie, 256-260
Eskimo, 198, 267 Kipling, 146
Eve, 96, 97-101 Klebs, 181
Farrar, 23-24 Knott, 262-263
Fechner, 148, 181 KoelUker, 181
Flammarion, 175, 181 Kiinnstler, 181
Flournoy, 181 Ladd, 147
Fol, 181 Langley, 181
Foster, 94 Lamarck, 46-47, 133
Franklin, 76, 354-355 Lane, 311
Franklin, Sir John, 31 Lang, 181, 279, 283
French Royal Academy of Sciences, Lao Tsze, 155-156
233 Laplace, 125
Fresnel, 353 Lardner, 23
Geikie, 181 Layman, 303-306, 336-337
Gibier, 181 Leaf, 181
Gladden, 6-7 Le Bon, 193, 394
Gladstone, 73, 113 Le Conte, 163, 181
Goodrich-Freer, 181, 251, 274, Leibnitz, 400-401
283 Lewes, 103, 249-250
Gordon, 303-305 Lewis, 255
Gould, 96 Lochman, 181
Graham, 134, 181, 296-299 Locke, II, 205-208
Gruber, 181, 183 Lodge, Sir Oliver, 181, 224, 299,
Haeckel, 12, 104, 171, 217-218, 218- 353-354. 395-396
219, 220, 226-229 Longfellow, 242
Hamilton, 210 Luther, 18, 21
Hammond, 11-12, 107, 213 Lyell, 57
Harris, 402 Lyte, 49
Harrison, 209 McCosh, 401-404
Hartmann, Von, 95, 147, 156- McHatton-Ripley, 287-288
158, 222 McKavett, Captain, 307-308
Hayden, 291-292 Mackintosh, 209
Hacker, 386 Mallock, 1 19-120, 181
 SUBJECTS AND AUTHORITIES 409
Authorities cited continued
"
Authorities cited " continued ^

Manetohcoa, 271 Sherman, 285-287

Marmery, 262, 290 Shuler, 305-306
Marryat, Florence, 128 Sidgwick, 181
Masson, 135, 161-162 Simon, St, 209
Matthew (Gospel),101-102 Simpson, 250-251
Maya Codices, 195 Smedes, 287
Melancthon, 21 Smith, Colonel, 270
Mendel, 226 Society for Psychical Research, 234-
Merwin, 141-143 235. 296-297, 298-299, 358-375
Mill, John Stuart, 2 10-2 11, 397 Spencer, 4, 12, 76, 168, 176, 213-215,
"
Modern Mexico," 302 355
Moebius, 183 Stainton-Moses, 285
Mohammed, 285 Stallo, 181
Momerie, 85, 181 Stanhope, Earl of, 252
Montgomery, 148 Stein, 181
Montucci (Fathey),41 Steefa, John, 372-374
Moody, 29 Stephen the Sabaite, 187
Mooney, 272 Stephens, John L., 301
Morgan (John King), 256, 318-320 Stewart, 181
Morris, 330-333 Stewart and Tait, 103, 107-108, 109,
Murdock, 216 116, 117, 120

Myers, 181, 223-224, 297 Stock. St John, 115

Miiller, 5, 188-190 Strasburger, 181
Newbold, 295-296 Sully. 181
"
Newman (Cardinal),50, 145 Supernatural in Nature," 56
New Testament, 29, 63 Swedenborg, 144
Newton (SirIsaac),47, 69, 147 Swift, 73
Nevius, 68, 181, 269 Tacitus, loi

Nus, 173 Tait, 181

Nussbaum, 181 Tcheng-Ki-Tong, 275
Orton, 229 Tennyson, Lord, 77, 145, 215, 403
Parry, 267 Terriss, William, 310-315
Paul (Saint),100, 285 Tertullian, 29
Pfeffer. 181 Tesla, 225, 354
Piddington, 181 Thomas, 195
Pilate, Pontius, 399-404 Thompson. Dr G., 149-150
Piper (Mrs), 295-299 Thompson, J. J., 181
Pliny (The Younger), loi Thomson, Prof. W. H., 94-96, 104,
Prendergast, Colonel, 309-310 181, 225
Pritts, 270 TroUope, 253, 254, 344-347
Poe, 49 Tylor, 57, 81
Podmore, 181, 310-315 Tyndall, 18, 73, 135, 212, 252
P. (Mr), 316-320, 321-324, 325-326 United States Supreme Court, 142-
Quackenbos, 181 143
Rayleigh, Lord, 181 United States Circuit courts, 142
R^cejac, 181 Van Norden, i8i
Religious Tract Society,26-27, 28 Verrall, 181, 298
Ribot, 181 Verworm, 183
Richet, 17, 181 Vignoli, 181
Ridgway's Magazine, 342 Virchow, 181
Roberts, 22-23 Von Hartmann (see Hartman,
Romanes, 17, 34, 43, 47, 51, 52, 53, Von)
84, 91, 103, 104, 119, 169, 172, Waldstein, 149
182-186, 203, 227-229, 240, 252 Wallace, A. R., 76, 89-90, 127, 181
Roosevelt, President, 270 Ward, Dr, 150, 181
Salisbury, Lord, 112 Warschauer, 134, 181
Sandeman, 181, 221 Webster, Noah, 13, 216
Sanders, Rev. Dr, 107 Weismann, 181, 220, 221
Sargent, 57 Westcott, 22

Schiller, 181 WTiitman, 399-400

Schofield, 128, 181, 339 Wilkinson, 250, 397
Schreiner, Olive, 242 Wolseley, Lord, 288-289
Shaler, 58, 121-123, 181, 222-223 Wordsworth, 161, 220
 410 GENERAL INDEX OF
Authorities cited continued " Bible " continued
Wundt. 148, 181 familiar spirits,diviners, divina-
tion,
Ximenes, Cardinal, 23 etc., etc., 25
Zollner, 366 "
Higher criticism merely deals with
Zopf, 181 the stucco and drapery of the
Zwingli, 21 Bible ; its fabric stands, 55
" The first Creation narrative in -

Bacon, Lord, The eidolon of form, Genesis, 105

"
152-155 " So - called spontaneous tion
genera-
"
"
FamiUarity with a name makes considered, 105-106
it an explanation, 152-153 " Miracles narrated in the Bible,
Balbiani, On psychology of organisms,
micro- 92-109
183 Professor De
"
Morgan on dogmatic
Barker, Professor, On the sub-
consciousness, theology and science, 180
150 "
Crystal vision in the Bible, 270
Barrett, Professor W. F. (F.R.S.). Bingham, Rev. Dr, ItaUan girl:
"
Do
On telepathy, 224 you Protestants beheve in any
." On the spiritual ear, and open supernatural world at all ? "

54
"
vision, 224 Binet, Alfred, Psychic Ufe of organisms,"
micro-
" On the larger life,224 182-183
" On the solidarityof mind, 225 "
Refers, as authorities,to Gruber, Ver-
" On the divining rod (dowsing), worm, Moebius, Balbiani, etc., 183
277-283 Biology, Professor Wm. H. Thomson
" Methods described ; Ust of dowsers, on inference as a prime factor
278-281 in
biology, 94
Bamett, Canon, On loss of the "
Summary of the final results and
consciousness of God, 39 conclusions of Romanes, in
"
Morality dependent on ness
conscious- biology, 227-229
of God, 39 Birthmarks, Transmitted correct in
"
Bateson, W. (F.R.S.). Problems of place and form to unborn children
Heredity," 225-2:16 from prenatal shock to the mother,
"" No gUmmering as to what tutes
consti- 229-230
the process of transmission " Reference to Professor O. W.
of parental Ukeness, 225 Holmes, 230
" We do not know whether material " Holmes cites mental impression
or not, 225-226 (see Elsie Venner)
Bayley, Professor (S.P.R.). W. D. Booth, Lady Gore,
Apparitional case,
Experiment with
Piper, 295 Mrs from herself and
family, 348-349
"
Interjection by deceased sister, Bosco (The Magician), Utterly scouted
excluding telepathy, 295 the idea of the possibilityof
" Experience in medium's cabinet, Home's phenomena being pro-
duced
two forms present, 368 any by of the resources of
" Experience in a large medical his art, 253
society, 339-342 Bowen, Professor Francis, On the
Berkeley, His system contrasted with unconscious department of the
that of Locke, 209 mind (the subconsciousness), 146
" How Hume used both, 209 " On the two Criteria of Truth, of
"
Huxley on Berkeley's system, 212 Leibnitz, 400
Bible, False from
interpretations Bradley, Bishop, On the spreading
isolated texts, 9 disregard of Christ's authority,
" Same is true of all Bibles, 9 to-day, 28
" Growth of dogma as a consequence, " Tertullian on the same, contrasted
9 with above, 200 years after
" Consists of a residuum from many Christ, 29
other documents, 22 " Irenaeus on the same, 29
" Those not now canonical thrown out Brine, Vice-Admiral, On crystalvision
by Church councils, 22 among the Ancient Mayas, of
" Dr Lardner ; priorto 556 there was Yucatan, 273
no canon, 23 Brinton, Dr Daniel G., On religion
"
" Christian people were at liberty and superstition,56
to judge for themselves," 23 " No tribe devoid of religion ; no

" Canon Farrar's list of mistransla-

tions animal manifests any sense of
in New Testament, 23 religion,56
" Bible on enchantments, magicians. " Ail religionsdepend on revelation,56
 SUBJECTS AND AUTHORITIES 411
Brinton, Dr Daniel G. " continued Charcot, Professor, Experiments in
" On crystal vision in Ancient clairvoyance under hypnosis, 284
Yucatan, 273 Chamberlain, Dr E. R., Case of pre-
vision
Broca, Paul, Earliest human remains by Captain McKavett of
show talismans, 57 the latter's own death, 307-
Browning, Mrs E. B., On great-
ness God's 309
and our incompleteness, 216 Chopin, Frederick, The inspirationof
"
" On His rest, and our restlessness, 216 his Marche Funebre," 49
Buchner, On spirit,135 "
Comparison of Chopin with Edgar
Burton, Captain, Used crystal and Allan Poe, 49
black mirror in the East, 252 Christ, Jesus, Max Miiller on going
back to His words and life,5
Calvin, John, Calvinistic errors, 24 " Romanes on fallacies of orthodoxy,
Cano, Dr Bernardo, On universal and recent simplification of
practice of crystal vision in doctrine, 6
Yucatan, to-day, 273 " God's character revealed in Christ's
" Not confined to the natives, 273 life and words, 7
Canons of the Church of England, On " His promisesof spiritualistic powers,
possession,obsession and casting 23
out of devils, 5 " Not restricted to those of his own
Carpenter,Dr Wm. B., Alleged spiritual church or faith, 23
phenomena quite genuine and fair " His commission, 26
subjectsfor scientific study, 252 " Statement of Rev. Dwight L,
" His remarkable paper on
"
mediate
im- Moody, as to Christ's unpopu-
larity
"
insight which will to-day, 28
supersede the laborious operations " The virginconception, 96
of the intellect,and reveal truths "
Examples of virgin conceptions
and gloriesof the Unseen, 398 from estabhshed science, 96
Carpenter,Professor J. EstUn, On the " Parthenogenesis examples, 96
;
universaUty of reUgion,82-83 " His execution attested by Tacitus,
Carlyle,Thomas, On miracles ;
"
What lOI
" "
arethe laws of Nature ? 265 " His worship as God," attested by
" Who has been present at the Creation Pliny the Younger, 10 1

and learned the laws of Nature ? (Both the above were heathen
265 writers)
"
" Alas, not in anywise I They have '"
Fallacies of a clerical critic's
been nowhere but where we also arguments, 10 1

are," 266 " His reasons for attributinggreatness

"
'" No
endure lie
for ever," 401
can to Christ, would have left Him no
"
Causality,Romanes on causality,"43 greatness, 102
'" Romanes on ; only because we are " On the kingdom of heaven within
so familiar with its appearance do ourselves, 193
we fail
recognise its only
to " The Universe God's
workshop,
possibleoriginand progress, 43 creation by design going on all
" Sir John Herschel on "causality,"44 the time, 193
*'
" Only interpretableby volition,44 " Suffer little children," 201
" Lamarck on
"
causality,"
46 Christianity,Founded on spiritualism
"
" " Sir Isaac Newton on causality,"47 of the modern types, 18
" Cicero (Nature of the Gods), On " Its continued spiritualism never
"
causality,"48 denied until the Protestant mation,
Refor-
"
"
Physical causation cannot be 18
made to supply its own tion
explana- " For fifteen centuries it was universal,
"
(Romanes), 84 18
"
Romanes, on volition as the only " List of phenomena of modem ty^Q
known cause, 228 of spiritualismnarrated in the New
" Sir John Herschel on volition as Testament, 19
only known cause, 44-46 "" The old Church recognisedspiritual-
ism
"
" Lamarck on Will," divine free will, in revelations, among the
as only known cause, 47 common people, 19
" Sir Isaac Newton on Divine Will as " Its old triumphant career lost in
the only cause, 47 eddies, 39
Centrosomes, The psychical com-
manders " Canon Bamett on the cessation of
in the psychology of the consciousness of God, The
micro-organisms,218 words of Jesus, 39
 412 GENERAL INDEX OF

Christianity continued "

Clairvoyance continued "

" Its awakening

new and present was it telepathy from the livingor
broadening, 39 the dead ? 274
" Abandonment of erroneous logical
theo- "
Experiment down a salt-well,286

systems, 39-40 "

Experiments in projected conscious-
ness,
" Attack and triumph over ism,
heathen- 285-287
40 "
Algerian case described, 285
" Sacrifice of pagan art (allart was " Alderman's cases, under hypnosis,
pagan), 40 285-286
" Revival as Christian art, centuries Comte, Auguste, His religion "
of
later,40 humanity," 83
"
Many of its beliefs and practices " A composite god compared with a

antedate Christ, 41 composite photograph, 84

" Biblical Christianitya dead record "
Huxley would as soon worship a

without a spirituaHsmever present wilderness of apes, 103

and acting,41 " Comte 's teachings,205
" "
"
Higher Criticism merely applic-
able " His history and system, 209-210
to historical and incidental " His fallacies,210
errors, 55 Conn, Professor H. W., On plasm,
proto-
"
Necessity for Protestant revolt not 52
denied ; the Reformation struck " Not a chemical product, but a

back at abuses of and also re-

formed machine, 52
the older Church, 168 " Machines always constructed under
"
Theological fallacies forced upon the the guidance of intelligence,to
Reformation by the necessity of construct and adapt the parts to
repudiating the spiritualauthority each other for a definite purpose,
of the old Church, in order to have 53
a status for the new, 168-169 " On centrosomes in the psychology
" Result was to leave an anonymous of micro-organisms, 218
Bible and a despiritualised " His " Story of the Living Machine,"
"
Church, 169 52 (seealso his Germ Life," and
"
" The exclusion present divineof Evolution
")
activity manifested by spiritual " All living protoplasm is living
powers openly acting, for which machinery, 225
was substituted an impersonal " The problem of explaining life is the
Nature as the operator, 169 problem of explaining a machine,
" MateriaUstic science seized its 225
opportunity,and an alUance was " We are apparently as far from a real
formed, 169 explanation of life as before the
" A short step from a dead Bible to a discovery of protoplasm, 225
dead God, 38 " We know of no such simple proto-
plasm
" Its conquering power during its capable of living activities
earlier ages the spiritualistic, apart from machinery, 225
"
246 Conscience, Shakespeare says, science
Con-
Church, Mrs Ross (Florence Marryat), makes cowards of us all,"
128 402
"
" On credulity which accepts any-
thing," " The inner voice from the consciousne
sub-
among 128
spiritualists, 402
"
" Reference to her book, There is no " Unites us with all that is higher ; the
Death," 65 surface consciousness only knows
" Her experiments with Sir William it as a superstition, 402
Crookes, in the Katie King pheno-
mena, Consciousness, The difficultyis not
65-66 that it should survive after bodily
" Her statements regarding sceptics, death, but that it should survive
66 through bodily life, or exist at
Churchill, Winston, On the flash from all, 72
crossing wires of consciousness "
Tyndall on chasm between sciousness
con-

(seeHume), 209 and physics of the

Cicero, M. T., On causation ; immediate, brain, 135
of the gods directingand governing " Darwin on universe and ness
conscious-
"
the whole world ; otherwise, of inconceivable without istence
ex-

what avail is piety, sanctity, or of God, 85

"
religion? 48 " Professor Momerie on Darwin's
Clairvoyance, Case of " Eph's bullet " ; letter,85
 414 GENERAL INDEX OF

Crossland, Newton, Spiritualism as De Morgan, Professor continued "

certain as the multiplication- "

Spiritualhypothesis sufficient,232
table, 250 " But ponderously difficult (1863),232
CrystalVision, Captain Burton used "
Spirituahstson track which has led
a crystal and black mirror in the to all advancement in physical
East, 252 science, 232
"
Experiments of J. Hawkins Simpson, " Their opponents the representatives
250 of those who have striven against
"
Experiments of A. Goodrich-Freer, progress, 232
250-252 " The spiritualists
appeal to evidence,
"" Narrative of Colonel James Smith, 232
concerning a crystalvision among " All nations have assumed that there
the Red Indians, 270 is a world of spirits,
232
" Bible narrative ; Joseph's divining " Uniform vein of descriptionamong
cup ; used also for drinking,270 rapping spirits, 232
" Use of shoulder-blade of wild-cat as " His qualifications epitomised,290
crystal,271-272 " His narrative of experiment of his
"
Among the Cherokee Indians of own in spirit-rapping,291-292
North Carolina, 272 " Anecdote of a sceptical friend's
"
Among the ancient Aztecs, 273 experience,292
"
Among the ancient Mayas of De Morgan, Mrs (wife of Professor
"
Yucatan, 273 De Morgan), Her book, From
" Dr Cano on present use in Yucatan, Matter to Spirit,"388
273 " Her citations of spiritual phenomena
"
Crystal vision among the Eskimo, in the Bible, 388-393
"
268 " Anecdote of children singing of
""
Among the natives of Chile ; used blood, wrath and damnation, with
by the Incas of Peru ; among the the utmost
good humour," 394
Apaches, 273 " Her momentous
question,394-395
Crystal vision and planchettewriting Dennett, Captain J. F. (R.N.),Narra-
tive
in China, 275 of Parry's Second Voyage to
the Arctic, 195
Dabney, Thomas S. G., Narrative of " Narrative of early missionaries to
clairvoyance in his family, of the Eskimo, 195-196
dying boy, 287 Their primitivebelief in God,
"
196
Darwin, Charles, On existence of God, Descartes, Innate principles,206
85 Dialectical Society of London.
^- On psychology of plants,150- 151 "
Huxley's reply,74
" Plants perceive,and then act, 150- - "
Answer by eminent psychologist,75
131 "
Investigation
and report on mena,
pheno-
" Consult together before acting; 233
division of labour, 151 " Extracts from letters to, 249-253
-" On the subconsciousness, 151 Dowsing (seeDivining Rod)
" On environment, 219 Divining Rod, The methods used by
'" His
proposed pangenesis, 223 so-called water-finders, 277
Davey, Dr J. G., His spiritualistic "
Largely in use in various countries,
investigationsremoved doubt, 250 277
Davies, Rev. Dr, On spiritualism in " Professor Barrett's exhaustive ports
re-
the Church, 5 theon divining rod, in
"
Spiritualistsare broadest men
church- Proceedings of the Society for
he finds anywhere, 57-58 Psychical Research, 277
De Morgan, Professor Augustus, On " Cases cited by Professor Barrett,
the overbearing minister of 278-283
Nature ; wears a priest's cast-off " Andrew Lang on Professor Barrett's
garb,dyed to escape detection, 125 reports ; not more than twelve
" Sketch of his qualifications,231, 290 failures out of 150 cases, 283
" His conclusions from his own periments,
ex- " A. Goodrich-Freer on the divining
231-232 rod, 283
" Cannot be explained by imposture, " Case of
Jacques Aymar (pursuit of
coincidence mistake, 231
or murderer), 283
" Some combination of will, intellect " Some possible explanations of
and physical power, 231 "
dowsing," 284-285
- "
Physical explanation casy^ but Dreams (see veridical dreams), Under
"
miserablyinsufficient,231-232 Cross-correspondences, "337
 SUBJECTS AND AUTHORITIES 415
Dudley, Professor Pemberton, Ap- Ethics " continued
paritional case, 340-341 " Ethics deal with questionsof duty,
Du Prel, On transcendentalism and not of choice ; a consequence,
Somnambulism, 36 not a cause, 84
" It is to learn what one ought to do,
Electricity, Modern views of tricity
elec- and there is no learningwithout a
and matter, 355-356 better informed teacher, 84
" The phenomena produced by strain Ethnology, United States Bureau of,
in the ether, 353 Psychical practices among the
" Franklin the forerunner in its utilisa-
tion, Indians, 292
354-355 "
Crystal vision of Confederate
" Tesla on electrical energy from soldiers, 273
"

space, 354 Eve, Dr, His Collection of Remark-

able
"
Ellinwood, Rev. Dr, Who shall say Cases in Surgery," 96
then that a disembodied spirit "
Many cases described of foetal
"
may not do the same ? 58 growth and development without
Embryology, A leading factor in the male parentage ; examples cited
New Psychology, together with at length,96-100
anthropology, modern biology, Evolution, Masson on Zero or Deity,
psychology of micro-organisms, 162
comparative religions, folklore, Granted "
a Deity, John Stuart Mill
and kindred sciences, 9 concedes revelation, 162
Emerson, R. W., On Brahma ; on " The parting of the ways ; either
"
of command,"
river 161, 289 God is all,or Zero is all,162-163
Emotions, Emotions the higher, "
By its definition Zero is nothing,
intellect the lower (Spencer),4 and, however we may multiply it,
Empiricism contrasted with cendentalism,
trans- it remains nothing, 162
216 " Haeckel's errors regarding tion,
evolu-
Environment, Fallacy regarding its 217-227
power ; it has no power ; the " Professor Orton on evolution of the
power is in the one who overcomes imago from formless matter,
it, 219 229
" Misunderstood by Haeckel ;
"
the " The only scientific basis of evolution
"
is everything,
man 219 is volition, 240
Erasmus, Fourth edition of his Greek " Romanes, Sir John Herschel,
Testament, not earlier than 15 14, Lamarck, on, 241
the basis of all subsequent texts ; " Divine volition, acting in a vast
the materials he used, 23 sphere as our volition does in a
Eskimo, Their religiousbeliefs,before small one, solves the problem of
the advent of the missionaries,198 evolution ; volition cannot be con-
ceded
" Narratives of apparitions,angekoks, in the one case and denied in
and crystalvision among them, 267 the other, because the processes are
Ether, The luminiferous ether sidered,
con- identical, only differingin magni-
tude
293-294 ; as Sir Isaac Newton merely
" Wireless telegraphy a phenomenon expanded the conception of
of the ether, 293 gravitation from the fall of an
""
Contrasted with telepathy,of the apple to the cosmical bodies of
consciousness, 294 space, 241
" Free and bound ether, 328
" Lord Kelvin on the ether, 353 Faith, Romanes on difference between
" Sir Oliver Lodge on the ether, 353 faith and opinion,91
" Sir John Herschel on the ether, 352 "
Huxley's confusion of these terms, 91
" Nikola Tesla on the ether, 354 Farrar, Canon, His "Texts Explained,"
" Sir Wm. Crookes on the vision of 23
nature, 355 " Citation of many errors, some of
" Fresnel on the ether, 353 which are vital, in present trans-
lations
" Consideration of the ether as a of the New Testament,
factor in the phenomena of 23. 24
materialisations, 350-356 Fascination, Psychical in character, 287
Ethics, Without a religious
basis ethics " Allied to the inspiring power of
impossible,84 great leaders, 288-289
"
One of the "moral satisfactions" " Case of fascination of frog by
which, Romanes says, always rattlesnake, 287-288
land us in misery, 84 Flammarion, On mistakes of science.
 4i6 GENERAL INDEX OF
Flammarion "
co nt inued God " continued
due to failure to pursue scientific of conceiving of the universe with
methods, 173 our conscious
selves, without the
" Relates incident in French Academy existence of God, 85
of Sciences, when the phonograph "
Nothing spontaneous except in our
was first exhibited there, 175 own mind, and in God's will, 106
Foster, Professor Michael, On difference " Man's brotherhood and God's
between livingand a a dead human fatherhood ; how this faith rises
body a;large to extent one of above human creeds and sectarian
inference only, 94 theology, 164
Folklore, This new science presents old " The great Overgod found intact in
phenomena in a new aspect, 302 all religions,
167
"
Importance of consensus among " Also with divine and spiritual
widely separated peoples,302 revelation to man, 167-168
"
" Coincidence cannot account for " God is a Spirit "
; the context, 187
such, 302 " Faith in God's immanence ;
"
Franklin, Benjamin, His
Dr flying,"
Kite- anecdote of two little girls,192
76 " The universe His workshop ;
"
" His noble reply, Of what use is a building, designing, with gence
intelli-
"
baby ? 76 and volition, and creative
" "
" What the baby now complishes,
ac- power and wisdom constantly
76 going on, 193
" His place in the phenomena and " Eskimo belief in God prior to
interpretationof electricity, 354 missionaries, 196-197
" Electrical energy from the ether, " Le Bon's statement of man's
354-355 creation of
gods, and the
then
Franklin, Sir John, On revival of worshipping them, disproved, 197
frozen fish in the Arctic, 3 1 " The intellectual and emotional
French Royal Academy of Sciences, conception of God preceded all
investigationand report of 1831, attempts to embody them, 197-198
on so-called animal magnetism, " Mrs Browning on His completeness,
233 and His rest, 216
Fresnel, On the luminiferous ether, 353 " Professor James' definition of God,
224
Gladden, Rev. Washington (D.D., "
"
We and God have business with
"
LL.D.), The Outlook for each other," 224
Christianity,"6 " Author's definition of God, 242
" On liberalisingmovement in the " Lamarck's definition of God, 242
Roman Catholic Church, 7 " Walt Whitman on the individual
" On vast changes from the old to the as part of the divine ; the same
new theology, 7 of nations, 399-400
" Divine fatherhood and human " Leibnitz on knowledge of God, as

brotherhood, 8 originator, sustainer and pre-

server
" God was formerly a sovereign ; of our ; and own soul as the
to-day is a Father, 7-8 receiver
of God's knowledge, 401
"
Gladstone, Huxley on Gladstone Goodrich-Freer, Miss A. (S.P.R.),
and Genesis," 73, 113 On objectivity of things seen in
God, God's science
of Man versus Man's crystalvision, 251
science
of God, 3 " On acquirement of the art of crystal
" His character revealed in the life vision, 273
and words of Jesus, 7 "
Example cited from a little colony
" Our relation to, 7 of crystal gazers, 274
" No sovereignty higher than hood
father- " On the use of the divining rod, 283
; no law stronger than love, 8 Gordon, Lieutenant-General John B.,
" A celebrated evangelist:
"
It is the Cases of prevision narrated in his
common cant to say that Christ is recent book, "
Reminiscences of
here, not in the flesh but in the the Civil War," 303-305
spirit,"48 Gould, Dr, His Curiosities of "

" He says that Christ went away from Medicine," 96

the world of His children ; no one "
Many cases of foetal growth, with
knows when He will return, 49 live foetuses, often nearly fully
" Answer to the evangelist, "
Abide developed, in cases where male
with me," 49 parentage was impossible, 96
" - Charles Darwin on the impossibility (see also Dr Eve's book)
 SUBJECTS AND AUTHORITIES 417
Graham, Professor, On the alleged Haeckel, Ernest " continued
atheism of science, 134 "
His endorsement of Romanes,
" His " Creed of Science " ; a state of 226-227
chaos never existed, 134 " The conclusions of Romanes directly
Graham,
PrincipalJohn W., On Cross- opposite,227-229
correspondences, S.P.R,, 296-299 Hecker, Dr J. F, C, On epidemics
Gruber, On psychology of micro-
organisms, of the Middle Ages, dancing
183 mania, sweating sickness, child
pilgrimages,etc., 386
"
Hamilton, Sir William, On in- Heredity, Physical heredity incom- patible
explicability," on any empirical with memory, 158
basis, 210 Otherwise progenitors must have "

"
Hammond, Dr William A., His Sleep been better informed instead of
and its Derangements," 11 less, 158
" Likens mind to bile, to light,
candle- " Cannot account for inheritance of
to a coal-fire,12 higher mind from lower, 220
"
Says that when brain is quiescent " Lowest forms of life have little of
there is no mind, 12 use to us to transmit, 220
" He wrote in 1869, 11 " No physical stream can rise higher
" His concessions, in cases of nambulism,
som- than its source, 220

that his subjects saw " Inventions could never be so

without eyes, and while the transmitted, 220

ordinary senses were not awake " Discussion of heredity,from recent

to ordinary excitations, 107 authorities, 220-230
Harris, Joel Chandler, Everything " Citations from Bateson, 225-226
beautiful and precious in this "
Strange results from cross-breeding,
world has a mystery attached to 226
it,402 " Sandeman heredity ;
on no

Harrison, Frederic, His belief in differences protoplasms indicat-

in ing
Comte's philosophy, 209 possibiUtiesof form, 221
Hartmann, Edouard Von (see also " Von Hartmann on heredity,
Von Hartmann) 222
"
" On phenomena following the "
Kant on instinct ; the Voice of
severance of an annelid, 95 God," 222
" On the subconsciousness (the " Consideration of the "Vis Medica-
unconscious),147 trix Naturae," 222
" On memory, 156-157 " Professor Shaler on heredity;
" On the action of the unconscious, changes in man psychical, not
158 physical,222
" On the unconscious Heredity, says Shaler, goes beyond
consciousness),
sub- (the "

222 our field of knowledge or the

Hayden, Mrs, The medium in whose scientific imagination, 223
presence were produced the Bateson on heredity; no glimmering "

phenomena described by Professor of an idea ; we do not even know

be Morgan, 291-292 whether it is material or not,
"
Haeckel, Ernest, His Riddle of the 225-226
Universe," 12 " Professor Orton cites the fact that
" Describes the soul as a matter of the larva disappears into form-
less
the nervous system, 12 matter before the imago
" He says it is the sum total of the commences to form, 31, 229;
physiologicalfunctions, 12 I refer also to Orton's "
parative
Com-
" Conceded his incompetency to deal Zoology," page 30 :
with the problems, 171 "
There are no parts set apart
"
Thought he was able, however, for a particular purpose, but a

to produce a sketch of a general fragment is as good as the whole

plan, 217-218 to perform all the functions of life."
" "
" Recommended the profound work The animal series, therefore,
"
of Romanes to his readers, 104 beginswith forms that feel without
" Romanes repudiated Haeckel and nerves, move without muscles,
his teachings,103-104, 227 and digest without a stomach :

" Some of Haeckel's misstatements in other words, life is the cause

and fallacies, 218-219 of organisation,not the result of
-" His whole scheme of heredity now it. Animals do live because
not
discredited, 220 they are organised, but are

2D
 4i8 GENERAL INDEX OF
Heredity continued
"

Hume, David, His argument against

"
organised because they are alive miracles, 88
(Note, not in text of present work) Fallacies of Hume's argument, "

" Lamarck on the organisingprinciple 89

as superior to Nature, and dependent A. R. Wallace
in- on Hume's argument, "

of matter, 229 89-90

" Birthmarks transmitted to unborn " T. H. Huxley on the same, 90
children, from prenatal shock to " G. J. Romanes on the same, 90-
mother, and appear at birth 91
correct in form and place,229-230 " His teachings,205
"
Example in professionalexperience " Little understood by those who
of the Author, 230 lean upon him, 208
" Professor O. W. Holmes, -M.D., on " His philosophy, 209
birthmarks (ProfessorHolmes cites " Morell (" Speculative Philosophyof
the case of King James I. of Europe "),on Hume, 209
England, in which a mental dread Hunt, Leigh, His poem, Abou Ben
of naked weapons followed through Adhem, 396
his whole life, from maternal shock, Huxley, Thomas H., On materialism ;
from his mother practicallybehold-
ing the idealistic positionunassailable,
the murder of Rizzio, by such lO-II

weapons) " He denies materialism, 11

Herron, Professor, On degeneration the " His definition of science ; if nothing

of living faith ; theology re- sponsible but what is exactly true be called
; does God live now ? 38 science, there is very little science
Herschel, Sir John, On causality; only in the world, 74
interpretable by volition,45 " On Hume's argument against
" On memory as controlling the atoms miracles, 90
" "
and molecules of space, 158 " On Comte's God of Humanity ;
" On the phenomena of atoms in a wilderness of apes, 103
motion, 175 " On mathematics as a perfectscience,
" Their movements can only be 113
explained by mind and voUtion, " Answer by Professor Jevons, iio-

175-176. (He says, in his paper III, 113-115

on Atoms, "Thou hast said it. " On solid and sure-enough science,
The presence of Mind is what solves 177
the whole difficulty
") " On the brain as a mechanism by
" On will without motive, power which the material universe
without design, thought opposed becomes conscious of itself,212
to would
reason
; explain a " The idealistic position unassailable,
chaos, but not anything else, 176 213
" On mind as the key which unlocks "
Compelled to accept idealism
the vis viva of unstably-balanced instead of materialism, 397
nature, 223
" On the ether, 352 Illman, Rev. Thomas W., His periment
ex-

Hockley, Mr, On crystal vision ; with a trumpet-medium,

collected more than 12,000 answers 335-336
to questions. Examples, 251-252 Inconsequential character of much of
Hodgson, Richard (LL.D., S.P.R.), the phenomena, 372
Communications, through Mrs " But phenomena of this sort fre-
quently
Piper, after his death, with of scientific importance,
Professor Bayley and others, 295- 372. 374
299 " Case of John Steefa (table-tipping
"
Surviving personalityof Hudson
case), 372-374 "

turns up at one of Dr Hodgson's Difficult to explain on any normal"

sittings,327-329 or telepathicbasis, 374

Holmes, Professor O. W., On the sub-
consciousness,
Case of young girl,who automatic-
ally "

149 reported two large volumes

" On birthmarks (see Heredity), 230 of formal sermons, 375
"
(Says, there is no end of cases of IngersoU, Col. Robert G., On passing
"
this kind ; see Elsie Venner")
"
away of churches, 119
Hough, a boy medium ; Experiments Inventions, Explanation of patentable
of Mr P. with, 316-320 inventions, 137-140
Huggins, Dr, His association with Sir "
They are essentiallysupernormal,
Wm. Crookes, 236 141-143
 SUBJECTS AND AUTHORITIES 419
Inventions " continued Joan of Arc " continued
" Merwin on
"
Patentability of ventions,"
In- has always received with approval
139-142 and often with high recognition
" Court decisions on inventions, 142- and even beatification, 19
143 Johnson, Samuel, Apparitional case
" Like a" bolt from
blue," 138, 141 the narrated in his
biography, and by
" The psychology of inventions, 144- Washington Irving, 309-310
145 Johnson, Miss Alice (S.P.R.),Report
Irenajus, Sweep of Christianityin its of prevision in Terriss murder
earlier ages, 29 case, 310
" The causes and the results,29
" Due to faith, spiritualism and Kant, Immanuel, On instinct ; the
"
miracles, 29 Voice of God," 158, 222
Kelvin, Lord, On demonstrated daily
Jalalu'd Din, Persian poem, of 700 miracle of our human free-will,
years ago, on the divine system 94-95
of evolution, 242 " On the infinite difference in plant
James, Professor William (S.P.R.), and animal life and our conscious-
ness,
On systematic theology, 4 from any possible results
" The phenomena of spiritualism of the fortuitous concourse of
among the most constant in atoms, 95
history,59 " On perpetual miracle of life,200
"
" On the subconsciousness ; now " On Ether and Gravitational
a well - accredited psychological Matter through Infinite Space,"
entity, 223-224 353
" More life in our soul than we are Kepler, His pursued by the
researches
ever aware of, 223 methods employed by spiritualists
" Definition of the term, God, 224 in their investigations,69
"
" We and God have business with "

Aggressive scepticism fatal,69

each other," 224 Kidd, Benjamin, A Rational religiona
" " On Myers' great discovery and scientific impossibility, being a
demonstration of the subconscious contradiction in terms, 103
department of the mind, 383 "
Deep -
seated instincts of society
Janet, Paul, Materialism due to an have a truer scientific basis than
inclination to explain everything our current science, 106
by unity ; materialists do not go King, John (the Old Buccaneer,
back far enough for the unity, 176 Morgan), Purports to write in
" Their blunders consequent on this three colours, on closed slates,for
failure,177 Mr P., 318-320
Jevons, Professor W. Stanley, On King, Katie, Her last appearances to
tendency of men of science to Sir Wm. Crookes, 256-260
conceal incompatible facts, no, " The Crookes, photographs of, 256-
112 257
"
" On mathematics as an imperfect Kipling,Rudyard, A rag, and a bone,
science, no- 114 and a hankof hair," 146
" On Comte, Tyndall and Mill, 112-113 Knott, Professor C. G., On ness
sensitive-
"
Every explanation only serves to of the ear to atmospheric
open new problems, 113 vibrations, 262-263
" There must, at one time, have been
arbitrarydeterminations, 113 Ladd, Professor, On the subconscious,
" On infinite series of diminishing 147
solar systems, 124 Lamarck, Chevalier (Jean Baptiste
"
" When fairly pursued science Pierre Antoine de Monet), On
makes absurd drafts upon our causality,46
powers of comprehension and " On nature, 47
belief," 124 " On free-will,
47
" Result of harmonising a few facts " On God, 46-47
is to raise up a host of other explained
un- " His investigations resulted in
facts, 127 modem biology, 133
" Statement
of Professor De Morgan's " Overwhelmed by the great influence
qualifications, 290 of Cuvier, backed by the Church,
Joan of Arc, Type of humble recipients 133
of divine and spiritualrevelation " Revived and re-established by
and power, which the older Church Charles Darwin, 133
 420 GENERAL INDEX OF

Lamarck " continued Lewis, Mrs Lgetitia, Not a medium, 255

"
" Lamarck driven by back his searches
re- "

Spiritual manifestations, nearly

to a designing, creating, scared my daughter to death,"
and continuously executing God, 255
"

133 Life (see Orton's Comparative

Lane, Frederick, His prevision of the Zoology," p. 30)
murder of Terriss, the actor, 311 " Professor Conn on, 225
Lang, Andrew, On the divining rod, " As far now from a natural tion
explana-
283 as before discovery of proto-
plasm,
" On proportion of failures,283 225
" The failures may not be real failures, " ProfessorJames Orton on immediate
279 organisation of complex living
Language, American languages all animals from formless matter,
polysynthetic, 198 31, 229
"
Anthropologists agree that this Von
" Hartmann on reproduction of
determines an independent de-
velopment, two halves of a severed worm, the
if not origin, of the reproduced parts being totally
American races, 198 unlike the remaining halves on

Lao Tsze, Ancient Chinese philosopher, which they are formed, 95

600-500 B.C.,
155 " Professor W. H. Thomson on velopment
de-
" The commentaries of Kwang Tsze of a whale, 95
on, 155-156 " When a microscopic speck a greater

Laplace,On the denial pheno-

mena of any livingthing than when full-grown,
in our present ignorance of 95
the agents of nature, 125 " Professor N. S. Shaler on physical
"
Scrupulous attention required, 125 organisationof man, 222

Lardner, Dr Nathaniel, Canon was not " The old bondage of the mind to the
settled until about 556 ; prior to body swept away, 222
"
that time, Christian' people were " The frame remains essentiallyun-
changed,

at libertyto judge for themselves 222

"
concerning the genuineness of the " Orton says animals are organised
writings," 23 because they are alive" parative
("Com-
Layman, Dr Alfred, Case of prevision Zoology," p. 30)
by Private Shuler, of his own " Sir William Crookes on, 238
death in battle, months before his " Sees in life the promise and potency
death ; the scene pictured, 303- of all forms of matter, 238
306 " The psychology of micro-organisms,
"
Experiments with a trumpet- 182-183, 220
"
medium, 336-337 " The centrosomes, commanding
"
Le Bon, Gustave, His Psychology of generals,"218
Peoples," 193 Locke, John, On God, spirits and
"
Religious beliefs the most important revelation, 11, 205-208
element in the life of peoples, 193 Lodge, Sir OUver, The whole of us not
" The fundamental questions always incarnated in our terrestrial bodies,
religious,193 224
"
" On religiousbeliefs of peoples, the " Portions not ordinarilymanifested
most important element," 394 may appear in men of genius, in
Le Conte, Professor Joseph, Man an mediums, etc., 224
immortal spirit,163 " On demonstration of a future life,
" On the sole basis of morals, religion 299
and virtue, 163 " We are progressing sufficiently
" Behef intuitive and universal, unkss rapidly, 299
plagued by metaphysical ties,
subtle- " On the ether, free and bound, 353-
163 354
Leibnitz, His two criteria of truth, " On work of surviving personalities
400-401 after death, 395-396
Lewes, G. H., Religious philosophy a " Not a life of idleness ; personal
contradiction in terms, 103 service, 396
" On laws allegedto be known, 249 Longfellow, H. W., Lesson of his poem,
" "
" Whoever says, If phenomena are Excelsior," 242
produced by no known physical Luther, Martin, Until his revolt the
laws, he declares he knows the whole Church was spiritualistic,18
laws by which they are produced," " The spiritualismof the type known
250 as modern, 18
 422 GENERAL INDEX OF

Memory " continued Mind " continued

"
impressions ") gradually makes " Professor Le Conte on matter and
the name the explanation, 152 spirit,163
" "
" Association of ideas inapplicable " Professor Wm. H. Thomson on
in whole fields of memory, 157 mind as a great reality; nothing
"
Memory belongs to that psychical inconceivable about its separate
order of phenomena described by existence, 225
Sir John Herschel as of " atoms "
"
Simply a matter of evidence, 225
in their movements and behaviour, Miracles, The miracles of one age the
and of causation as volitional, science of the next, 91
158 " New Testament miracles, 92
"
Lapse of, as an allegedexplanation " The miracles of plant and animal
of psychical phenomena, 299 growth far more miraculous than
" If valid, would exclude all human those of Scripture,92
testimony, and all community of "
Only our familiarityblinds us, 92
social life,and civilisation,300 " Lord Kelvin on such miracles, 94-
" Lapse of memory may drop from, 95
but cannot add to, 300 " Lord Kelvin on plant-life,
con-
sciousness,
"
Merwin, H. C, On
Patentabilityof and free -
will, as

Inventions," 139 miracles, 94

" Court decisions cited, 141-143 " Von Hartmann on miracle of
Micro-organisms,Psychology of, 182- severed annelid, 95
183 "
Tennyson on miracle of flower in
" Revelations of primordial psychic wall, 138
life,182-183 " Professor W. H. Thomson on
" If obtained by physical evolution the development of a whale, 95
evolution must have come by a " Stewart and Tait on miracles in
leap,183 accordance with the continuity of
" Their psychicalattributes ; memory, nature, and an intelligentagent,
friendship,love, likes and dislikes, 95-96, 108
choice, sport, etc., etc., 183-184 " The virgin conception of Jesus,
" Haeckel birth of the soul from
on 96
parthenogenesis,
sexual union ; disproved by the " Not uncommon ; the usual mode in
psychology of the vast preponder-
ance lower organisms, 96
of asexual births, 218-219 " Occurrences of same in human
Mill, John Stuart, His teachings,205 beings, 97-100
"
" The
"
inexplicabilitywhich threw
over- " Hume's argument against miracles
his system ; his final cession,
con- long exploded, 88-92
2 1 0-2 1 1 "
Recently revamped by a so-called
Mind, From Zero or from Deity, 162 clergyman, 99-103
" Herbert Spencer on our ness
conscious- "
Huxley on miracles ; not impossible,
as derived Infinite from the 100

and Eternal Energy, that it is " The miracles within our own bodies,
specialised and individualised here, 106
"
and returns to its source at death, " The
"
miracles of the Rev. Dr
214 Sanders, 107
" Romanes on psychism of man as "
Carlyle on miracles, 265-266
kindred with the psychism of the Late magazine, on
Modern Mexico,
"
universe, The Spirit of the Poltergeists,302
Yucatan
Universe," 84 Moebius, On psychology of micro-
organisms,
" Dr Hammond's statement that cited by Binet, 183
mind is analogous to bile, to Mohammed, Vision of night-visitto
candlelight,to coal-fire, 12 -world, 285
spirit
" Contradicted by his own experi- Momerie,
ments, Professor, Accidental origin
107, 213 of the universe and consciousness
" Masson on basis of independent only conceivable by an gant
extrava-
reaUty, 135 fanatic, 85
"
Huxley on consciousness as the Montgomery, Professor, On the consciousn
sub-
medium of interpretation of the 148
consciousness of the universe, 212, Montucci, Father, On pre-Christian
213 revelations, 41
" The existence of mind cannot be Moody, Rev. Dwight L., His statement
denied, for it must exist, even to of the abandonment of Christ's
deny that it exists, 161, 209 commission ; hardly a name so
 SUBJECTS AND AUTHORITIES 423
"
Moody, Rev. Dwight, L. "
continued Orton, Professor James, His parative
Com-
unpopular as Jesus Christ's day,
to- Zoology," 31
29 "
(His statement that life organises
Mooney, James, Crystal vision among forms, p. 30 of his book)
Cherokees, 272 " On larva
and imago, 31
Morgan, Old English Buccaneer, Said " On physical heredity ; one form
to be the original of John King, disappears in formless matter
256, 318-320 before its successor begins, 31,
Morris, Charles, Extract from plan- 229
chette writing ; appearance of an

interjector; her life and death Parry, Captain, His second voyage to
described, 330-333 the Arctic, 267
Myers, F. W. H., On the subconscious, " His interviews with missionaries and
223-224 Eskimo, 195-197, 267-268
"
" Each of us an abiding psychical Paul the Apostle, Without this, our
entity far more extensive than he hope is vain," 100

knows, 224 " Whether inside or outside the body,

"
" His Human Personality," 297 285
Miiller, Max, On revivals, 5 Philosophy, Romanes says the sophy
philo-
" "
" Extract from his Memories the of cosmos becomes a

(God and Eternity), 190 philosophy of the unconscious

Murdock, Definition of transcendent-
alism, only because philosophy of it is a
216 the superconscious,84
Photographs, Spirit-photographs con-
sidered,

Nature, Its etymology, and tion

significa- 256-257, 261-264
"
; bom," 17 Pilate, Pontius, Tacitus says that
"
" Romanes on the psychism of the Christus, in the reign of Tiberius,
universe, 17 was put to death as a criminal, by
" Problem of nature is the problem of the Procurator, Pontius Pilate,"
mind, 17 lOI
" "
" Lamarck on nature, 47, 133 " His question, What is truth ?
" Sir John Herschel on nature, 44- 399
46 " The answer, the criteria of truth, 404
" Sir Isaac Newton on nature, 47 Piper, Mrs, The well-known S.P.R.
" "
" Nikola Tesla on stored up medium, 295-299
energy in nature, 225 Planchette, Its use in China for more
" Herbert Spencer on Infinite and than a thousand years, 276
Eternal Energy, from which our " Belief in its revelations by the
consciousness is derived, and to Hterati in China, 276
"
which it returns at death, 214 " No sign that the practice has had
Newbold, Professor, Referred to in its day," 276
communication of Dr Hodgson, Pliny the Younger, His testimony
after his death, to Dr Bayley, that Christians worshipped Christ
295-296 as God [Christoquasi Deo), loi
"
Newman, Cardinal, His hymn, Lead, Poltergeists,
Yucatan case, as narrated
Kindly Light," 50 by Stephens, 301-302
" On our union
after death, 145 " Valid reports of such cases able,
innumer-
New Testament, The writers firmed
con- 302
and expanded the spiritual-
ism Polysynthesis, All native American
of the past and present, and languages polysynthetic,198
directed it to the conversion of Prendergast, Colonel, Prevision, with
the world, 29 date, of his own death,
309-310
"
"
Jesus unable to do great works Pritts, J.,publisher of Border Life,"
where faith was wanting, 63 which contains Smith's narrative
Newton, Sir Isaac, On causality; on of Red Indian crystalvision, 270
instinct,47 Podmore, Frank, Report of prevision
" His methods of research, 69 in Terriss case, 310-315
"
gravitation,147
On Poe, Edgar Allan, Compared with
Nevius, Rev. Dr John L., On ism
spiritual- Chopin, 49
in China, 68 Prevision, Shuler case reported by
" His circular to missionaries, and Dr Layman, 303-306
their replies, 69 " Cases reported by General Gordon,
Nus, Eugene, His sardonic dedication 307-308
"
to Savants," 173 " Case of Captain McKavett, 307-308
 424 GENERAL INDEX OF
Prevision " continued Psychology " continued
" Case narrated by General thorpe,
Ogle- " The conceded abandonment of brute
309-310 matter, 179
" Case of William Terriss the actor, " Modern views of matter essentially
310-315 psychological,355
" Previsional dream of three ladies, " List of names of prominent psycho-
logists,
337-338 181
Probation, The only rational tion
explana- "
Importance of the study of micro-
organisms,
of life,228 183
Protestant Theology, Danger in any "
"
God opens wide all His doors
creed based solely on an ancient down there," 183
record, 25 "

Popular error regarding teachers,

"
Multiplicationof sects inevitable, 25 205
" In repudiating Uving spiritualism, "
The centrosomes in isms,
micro-organ-
compelled to accept a materialistic 218
nature, 26 " Sir Oliver Lodge on parts of us not
" To successfullyattack the older and incarnated here, 224
more spiritualisticChurch (but "
May appear as genius, mediumship,
in which spiritualism had been etc., 224
made sacerdotal), compelled to " Professor James on the sciousness,
subcon-
repudiate spiritualism,40 223
" Its basal false assumption, that " W. H. F. Myers on "an abiding
"
nature is in control, and that, if psychical entity far more tensive
ex-

there be a personal God, He is than he knows," 224

not immediately concerned with " Professor Barrett on the "larger
natural causation," 51 life,"224
Protoplasm a machine, not a chemical " Our union in the solidarityof mind,
substance, 225 225
" We do not know the essential ences
differ- " Professor Conn on life and plasm,
proto-
of protoplasms, and what we 225
do know appear to be wholly " Professor Wm. H, Thomson on
accidental and irrelevant, 221 mind as a great reality,
225
" No differenceprotoplasms in in " Professor Orton on psychology in
which possibilities of form can be metamorphosis, 31
"
expressed, 221 " His psychology in Comparative
"
Protoplasm of the imago formless, Zoology (seep. 30
"
of his book) ;
and moulded by the Ufe principle, "
animals do not live because they
17. 31 are organised, but are organised
Psychology, Present trend of.Preface v. because they are alive."
"
Formerly lacked means and ances,
appli- " The vast scientific change regard-
ing
8 psychology in the past quarter
" Basis of psychology is the cendental,
trans- of a century, 235
II " Sir Wm. Crookes on the promise and
" Has advanced so far as to make potency of life,238
retrogressionimpossible,
13 " His address on science before
" Definition of, 13 British Association, 237-238
Is psychical or spiritualistic, Supernormal is only in the sense of
"
14 "

"
Psychology among the Chinese, extraordinary, 268
68 " Use of such magnetism,"
terms as
"

"
Testimony of missionaries, 69 disguisepsychology, 269
to
" Rate of sensations no part of " Cases of prevision, which, if true,
psychology, 160 must be psychological,303-315
" What is it that travels ? the "
Experiments in changing weights,
identity of a man who is lated,
muti- 236, 316-326
160 " List of experimental demonstrations
" Professor Ladd on the missing by Sir Wm. Crookes, 236-237
"
word, up shot
the hidden from " The correct attitude of psychology
depth below," 160 to-day, 326
" On the giftof consciousness, 16 "
Experiments in passing matter
" How do we know that present through matter, 367-368
trend of psychology will continue ? " Planchette case narrated by Charles
178 Morris, 330-333
" The problems become simpleras we "
Table-tipping case narrated by the
advance, 179 Author, 372-375
 SUBJECTS AND AUTHORITIES 425
Psychology " continued Religion "
continued
"
Spirit-rapping case narrated by normal, and to be expected,
Professor De Morgan, 291-292 162
" Automatic reports of sermons by a " As old and universal as humanity,
young girl,375 167
" The psychology of religiouscon-
version, " Basis always spiritualistic,167
383-387 "
The Overgod intact in all
great
" Consciousness and the bases of religions,167
psychology, 397-398 " The old Spencerian idea that ligion
re-
"
"
Carpenter's concessions of mediate
im- arose from ghosts, dreams
insight," 398 and the like abandoned, 168
" No study which will bring richer " Prior to sixteenth century the
returns, 405 whole Christian Church avowedly
Psychic Life, Micro-organisms, 225 168
spiritualistic,
"
(see also Conn's Story of the " Romanes on basis of conflict
Living Machine," pp. 96-100) between religionand science ; due
P. Mr, Personal friend of the Author, to acceptance of Nature for God,
his experiments, 316-320 169
" His original records in possession " Results of divorcing religionfrom
of the Author, 320-324 ever-acting God, 170
" Advice to his
children against " Romanes' picture of soul-starving
seeking knowledge from public misery outside faith in God, 184-
mediums, 326 185
" Satisfactions which follow on faith
Religion, An everlastingreality,7 in God, 186-187
"

Aspect of religionrecentlychanged, " Le Bon on only giftwhich can dow

en-

7 with happiness,394
men
" The central truth now, God's " S, R. Crockett's contrast ; the two-
fatherhood and Man's hood,
brother- legged and the donkey, 187-188
8 " Max Miiller on religiousbasis in
" All of God,
religions and all spiritual-
istic, man, 188-190
55 "
Spiritualism of the universe, 190
" Brinton religionin general,56
on " On idols as mere physical sentatives,
repre-
""
Tylor on religionin the past, 56 197
" Sir Charles Lyell on primitive re-
ligion, "
Religious beliefs of the primitive
57 Eskimo, 196-197
" Paul Broca on the same, 57 "
Summary of religious conclusions
"
" Author of Supernatural in of Romanes, 228-229
"
Nature on the same, 57 " Basis of all religionis spiritualism,
"
Epes Sargent on the same, 57 245
"
Higher and lower religionsfunda-
mentally " From Paganism to modem anity,
Christi-
alike, 8, 167 246
"
J. Estlin Carpenter on the univers-
ality " Sincere have believers
always re-
pudiated
and identity of religions, 83 dogmatic theology, 247
"
" Kidd on a rational religion, con-
tradiction " Perverted theology allied with
in terms," 103 empiricism, 247-248
"
G. H. Lewes on the same, 103 " Mrs De Morgan ; her citations from
"
"
Huxley on Religionof Humanity," the Bible, 388-393
103 " Sir Oliver Lodge on work of sur-
viving
" Stewart and Tait on what Christ did spirits,395-396
as a fulfilment of law, 103 "
Leigh Hunt on love of fellow-man,
" Lord Kelvin on free-will as a daily 396
miracle, 103 Religious Tract Society of London
" Romanes on agnosticism, 103 " On the assumed withdrawal of
" Romanes on the Resurrection of spiritualpower from the Church ;
Jesus, 104
"
no longer needed," 26-27
" Outcome of the
great textual battle " The consequences, 27
(Higher Criticism),Romanes says " Rev. Dwight L. Moody ; same
"
Signal Victory for Christianity," condition now as He found it
104 years ago, 28 1800
"
Spiritualrevelation the basis of all Resurrection, Irenaeus on resurrections
religion,162 in his day, 29
"
"
John Stuart Mill ; if a Deity exists, "
"
Suspended animation sidered,
con-
then revelation is ordinary and 30
426 GENERAL INDEX OF
Resurrection " continued Romanes, George John continued "

" No scientific test of absolute death, " Evolution in analogy with God's
31 other work, 184
" Sir John Franklin on revival of " His picture of misery of those
the
frozen fish,31 who lack faith
in God, 185-186
" Revival of drowned house-flies,32 "
Summary of his scientific position,
" Professor Michael Foster on dead 227-229
and livingbody, 94 " His nearly fatal oversight in early
" Professor Wm. H. Thomson on life,227
"
livingand dead protoplasm, 94 " Was too much immersed in merely
" Evidences of resurrection, loi physical research," 227
Revelation. Stewart and Tait on " His later work and results, 228
revelation, 107-109 " On the integratingprincipleof the
"
John Stuart Mill on revelation, 162 whole ; a psychism, 229
Revivals necessary in all religions,5 " On the fatal alhance between
Richet, Professor Charles, On coming theology and materialism, 240
integration,17 " On unbehef, usually due to ence,
indol-
Ridgway's Magazine, Census of 600 often to prejudice,and never

physicians on immortality, 342 a thing to be proud of, 252

Roberts, Dr Alexander, On original Roosevelt, President Theodore, on
Greek Testament, 22-23 of Col. James Smith,
reliability 270
Roman CathoUc Church, Always
spiritualistic,
19 Salisbury, Lord, On dim and flickering
" Grew to claim sacerdotal control, 19 island
light,112 of
"
" Revolt inevitable, 21, 168 Sandeman, George, His Problems of
"
Romanes, George John, On the Spirit Biology," 221
of the Universe," 17 " We have no knowledge of the form-
" Its psychism akin to our own, 17- of germs or
determining properties
53 protoplasms, 221
" On Resurrection of Jesus, 34-35 Sanders, Rev. Dr C. B., His psychical
" On causality,43 revelations entitled X + Y = Z; or
"
" His experience at Cambridge, all The "
Sleeping Preacher," 107
the most illustrious names were Sargent, Epes, All tribes have had their
ranged on the side of Orthodoxy," prophets, seers, sensitives, psy-
chics
47 or mediums, 57
" His statement of the great basal Schofield, Dr A. T., His remarkable
religiousfallacyby which God is series of works on the scious
subcon-
grudged His own universe, 51-52 mind, 128
" On moral satisfactions without " His work "
The Force of Mind," 339
faith in God, which always land Schreiner, OUve, The pursuit of
us in misery, 84 truth ; on the topmost height, a
" On nature and its psychology, 84 singlefeather fluttered down, 242
"
Physical causation cannot furnish Science, Fallacies physical science, 3
of
its own explanation, 84 "
Physical incapable of deal-
sciencesing
."
On Hume's argument against with psychology. Preface v.

miracles, 90 " Narrowness of scientific specialists,

9
" Faith, as from
contradistinguished " Alhance of materiahstic science with
opinion, 91 materiaUstic theology, 10
" On service rendered
to Christianity "
Merely physical science fatal to
modern
by agnosticism, 103 breadth, 10, 227
" Battle of higher criticism a signal " Had science turned its attention
victory for Christianity,104 to investigationsof spiritualistic
" Those who reject Christianity do phenomena, great results would
not care for any religion, 104 have followed, 16
"
Explanation of his earlier book, 119 " The physical sciences deal merely
"
His primal errors at that time, 119 with the temporary, 16
" On conflict of science and religion, " The future of science when it has
169 assumed its true attitude, 17
"
Repudiated the facts and clusions
con- " In order to advance, it must be
of Haeckel, 172 ground, 71
constantlyshiftingits
" Sketch of his life and pursuits, "

Physiological psychology not psy-

chology
182-186 at all, 72
" His last work,
"
Thoughts on " The "
Scientific method "
the only
Religion,"183-184 correct method, 86
 SUBJECTS AND AUTHORITIES 427
Science " continued Science " continued
" The fatal ban of a priori,
87 verses possiblewithin
scientifically
" Kidd on the deep-seatedinstincts the compass of a needle's point,
of society,106 124
" Stewart and Tait on artificial " Science, he says, when fairlypur-
sued,
barrier erected by science, 109 makes absurd drafts upon
"
Limitations of physicalscience, no our powers of comprehension and
"
Mathematical science limited and belief, 124
imperfect, no, 113 " Professor De Morgan on the bearing
over-

" Mathematical writers ignore minister of nature ; he

problems, no wears a priest'scast-off garb, dyed
" Failure to account for cosmical to escape detection, 125
movements, in "
Laplace says it would not be
"
Infallible test of a genuine man of philosophicalto deny any pheno-
mena
science, 112 because, at present, inex-
plicable,
"
Penalty of faithlessness of scientific 125
teachers, 112 "
Arago doubt
says is scientific,
but
"
Warnings againstfalse assumptions, the oppositeis true of incredulity,
116 ^ 126
Scientific ignorance regardingforce, " Reserve, he says, above all is
n6 necessary in dealing with the
"" Herschel, Crookes, Romanes, Lord animal organisation,126
Kelvin, Sir Oliver Lodge, on " Abercrombie on unlimited ism
sceptic-
force, 116 ; one's
knowledge not own a

" Force but a manifestation of change test probabiUty, 126

of
of place, 116-117 " The dogmatism of theology finds a

" If all bodies were equallyendowed counterpart in the dogmatism of

with strain, there would be no science, 126
force, 117 "
Jevons : the result of harmonising a

"
Only known origin of force is few facts is to raise up a host of
volition, 117 others, 127
" The new sciences, modem
biology, " A. R. Wallace ; his arraignment of
embryology, microscopic psy-
chology, Dr W. B. Carpenter for deUberate
anthropology, parative
com- suppression of evidence in his
religions,folklore, etc., "
Mental Physiology,"127
have changed the whole aspect of " Authorities suppressed by Carpen-
ter,
science, 118 127-128
"
Chemistry, matter, the ether, the " The gains of science, enormous for
bases of solids, electricity,
etc., life and civilisation, 131
etc., have forced a new attitude " Science does not extend to its own

upon the so-called physical basic principles,131

sciences, 118- 119 " The bases have simply been ignored
" Professor Shaler on study of the or suppressed, 131
mind by naturalists ; specialties " The origin of modem biology :
tend to create an idol of prejudice ; Lamarck, 132-133
the invisible becomes neglected, " Difficulties encountered from
"
121
"
and
religion," science," 133
" On immortality ; says men of " Professor Graham on the alleged
physical science least qualified, atheism of science, 134
they must enter wildernesses where " A state of chaos never has been
they have no right to tread, 122- possible,134
123 " Dr Warschauer on the phenomena
" Professor Shaler says that denial of of science, 134
immortality and soul belongs to " It merely shows that certain
the days when naturalists had but phenomena are followed by others,
begun their inquiries into the 134
phenomenal world, 123 " All science rests on prior tions
assump-
" Professor Shaler says that students transcending science, 134
of nature are now nearer to those "

Tyndall on physics of the brain and

who have trusted to the divining consciousness, 135
senses than ever before, 123 " Science works with weights and
" Professor Jevons on infinite series measurements, 159
of successive orders of infinitely " The presence of an a prioriconcedes
small quantities
; a million uni- scientific failure,159
 428 GENERAL INDEX OF

Science " continued Shaler, Professor N. S. continued

"

" The pursuit of science ; its limita-

tions, " Old dogmatic beliefs now thrown,
over-

173 58
"
Jevons on mathematical problems ; " Naturalists see mind at a great
chances a million against one that disadvantage, 121

a chance one can be solved, 175 " Professor Shaler on physicalorgan-

isation
" Sir John Herschel on the movements of man, 222
of atoms ; utter failure of science "
It cannot account for his advance-
ment,
to even reach them, 175 222
"
Only explainable by mind and " Professor Shaler on heredity, and
volition
acting upon them, 176 on man's psychical development,
" In accounting for the universe by a 222

series of accidents, the accounting " On Darwin's proposed pangenesis,

is one of these, 176 223
" Sir John Herschel on will without " Naturalists
incompetent in questions
design, 176 of
immortality, 122
" The imitation, school-book science, " On
heredity ; quite beyond our
popularly taught, 177
as field of knowledge, 223
"
Huxley on residuum of solid science, Sherman, Loren Albert. Experiments
"
177 in soul-projection,"285-287
"
Modesty only found
among men of Shuler, WilUam, killed in the battle of
science of first rank, 177 the Wilderness, 305-306
" Problems which science cannot even Simon, Saint, Theistic French socialist,
approach, 174-175 Comte his disciple,209
" Scientific teachers have spoken too Simpson, J. Hawkins, On objective
much ex cathedra, 179 appearances in crystalvision, 250-
" A universal consensus always covers 251
a great fact, 179 Slate Writing, Experimental case ;
" The new studies have greatlycleared slates in
possession of the Author,
up science, 180 318-320
" Men of science of foremost rank all Smedes, Susan Dabney, Her book,
"
with us to-day, 180 Memorials of a Southern
"
" The inertia of the past the only Planter (wellknown in England),
obstacle now, 180 287
" The awakening of science, 181 " Case of clairvoyance of a dying
"
Importance of study of micro-
organisms, brother, 287
182-183 Smith, Colonel James, Case of crystal
" Not possible to account for their vision among the Red Indians in
psychism from heredity, 183 Ohio, 270
(for example, Binet cites certain Society for Psychical .
Research,
sea-weeds the offspring of which Founded 1882, constitution and
are animals [Zoospores],and very membership, 234-235
livelyand intelligent ones at that, " The work it has accomplished,
pp. 84-86 of his Psychic Life 296-299
"
see

of Micro-Organisms ") " Deaths of Gumey, Sidgwick, Myers

"
Popular error regarding the teach-
ings and Hodgson, 297
of men of science, 205-219 " Their subsequent communications
"
Spiritualism pursues the methods through mediums, 297-298
of science, 231-232 "

Cross-correspondences,296-299
" De Morgan on the phenomena, 231 " Some experiments before one of
" Sir Wm. Crookes on the ment
advance- the sections of, 358-375
of science, 237-238 Somnambulism, Trance, vision,inspira-
tion,
" Natural causation became the god 37
of science, 246-247 Spencer, Herbert, His statement .
of
" Dr W. B.
Carpenter on phenomena the emotions, 4
alleged to be spiritualistic,which " His agnosticism, 12
are quite genuine and fair subjects " His latest statement ; our

of scientific study, 252 consciousness, 12

"
Photography of the invisible,262- " At one time met facts on a priori
264 grounds, 76
Sex, Sexual births not the ordinary " His hypotheses of ghosts and
rule in nature, 218 dreams now discredited, 168
Shaler, Professor N.
S., On strong " His teachings ; his concession before
reaction against materialism, 58 his death, 213-215
 430 GENERAL INDEX OF

Spiritualism continued
"

Spiritualism " continued

" Its advancement in institutions of sometimes in each other's way^
learning,233-235 295. 323, 328, 362
"
" The basis of all religionis spiritual-
ism, " Sudden appearance of inter-
245 jectors,"327-329, 295, 331
" Its various types, 249 "

Experiments with trumpet

" We are all mediums ; developments mediums, 335-337
vary, 249 " Combined veridical and previsional
"
"
Disturbing influence of a strongly dream, 337-338
magnetic sceptic,252
"
"

Apparitional case reported by Dean

"
Inexplicable phenomena countered
en- of a Medical College,340
"
by a magician," who " Probable employment of bound-
consulted a medical friend of the ether in materialisations, 350-356
Author,
253-254 "
Apparitional cases, 340-349, 357-
"
Interruptions in communications 364. 369
from removing hands from the "
The apparently inconsequential
" "
table, 254-255 John Steefa case, 372-374
" Mental questions as readily "
The phenomena of spiritualismwill
answered as spoken ones, 254- always be exceptional,397
" Three great classes of facts which
"
Necessity presenting only
of seem to establish intercommunica-
tion
apparently genuine cases for in-
vestigation between the individual living
; remarkable cases not and the individual dead, 404-405
necessary, 256-260 "
All believers in " luck," " genius,"
" " "
" Sir Wm. Crookes' narrative, The conscience," self sacrifice," -

" "
last of Katie King," 256-260 remorse," aspiration,"all who
"
of
Spirit-photographs the invisible, think a prayer in distress, are
at
260-263 heart spiritualists, 404
"
Spiritualism in China ; in Ancient " In a vast number of cases the
Mexico ; in Central America ; narratives are true, 405
among the Red Indians, and the " Not in all, but not all of anything
northern Eskimo, 267-268 is true, 405
" How spiritualism has been shifted "
Importance to mankind of researches
off : "If there's anything you in spiritualism, 405
"
don't understand, call it magnet-
ism," "

Tennyson on the surviving Ghost

268-269 in Man," 405
" Smith's narrative of crystal vision The
Spiritualists, least dogmatic of all
among the Indians, 270 people, 15-16
"
Mooney's narrative of crystalvision " Rev. Dr Davies says they are the
amongthe Cherokees, 273 broadest churchmen, 58
"
Crystal vision in Yucatan, 273 " An unbiassed mind essential,63
"
Crystal vision among the Eskimo, "
They fear the coming onrush which
268 will follow universal acceptance ;
"
Crystalvision among other American the credulity will then be the
Indians, 273 other way. Caution always re-
quisite,

"
Crystal vision dates back to the 130
time of Joseph, at least, 270 " The test of a spiritualist,
404
" Consciousness sent outside the body, "

They gladly welcome every vestigat

in-
and reportingback, 284-287 404
" Methods now employed to exclude Stainton-Moses, W., On phantasms of
telepathy from the living,294 living,285
the
" The attempts to invalidate Stanhope, The Earl of, At his request
phenomena by
"
malobservation," Captain Burton obtained crystal
299 and black mirror, 252
"
"
"
Lapse of memory considered, Steefa, John, Purported to be a

299-300 coloured teamster in the federate

Con-
"
Experiments with Hough, a boy Army ; his tion,
communica-
medium, 316-320 372-374
" Narrative of the automatic writings Stephen the Sabaite, Saint (died 794)"
"
of Mrs P., 320-326 His hymn from Hymns of the
"
"
Originalrecords in possessionof the Eastern Church," Is there
Author, 320 diadem, as monarch ? " 187
"
Apparent presence of a number of Stephens, John L., Narrative of
communicators, "in a crowd," in
poltergeist Yucatan, 301
 SUBJECTS AND AUTHORITIES 431
"
Stewart and Tait, Their Unseen Tacitus, His testimony as to
"
Universe," 103 Christus," executed as a criminal
" What Christ did was not in defiance in thereign of Tiberius (closeda.d.
but in fulfilment of law, 103 37) by the Procurator, Pontius
"
Development of the universe by an Pilate, loi

resident
intelligence in the unseen, Tcheng Ki Tong (Chinese author).
107 On planchette writing in China,
" On revelation, 107-108 275
" Science and religion cannot have Telepathy, Reluctantly conceded by
"
two separate fields without communication,
inter- Natural Science," 293
109 " Science has also been forced to
"
Warnings against false assumptions alter its whole former bases, by
of pseudo-science, 116 the X-rays, the new electron views
"
Ignorance of critics concerning of matter, the phenomena of
"
force," 116 radium, the phonograph and
" " On horror of materialists
when telephone,and wireless telegraphy
brought face to face with the all in a quarter of a century, 293
inevitable results of their system, "
By its discovery and demonstra-
tion
117-118 telepathy has compelled a
"
Only recently have scientific men new caution in psychological ex-perimentation

perceived that there is something 294

besides matter or stuff, 120 "
Many of the past records in them-
selves
Stock, St John, On ungrammatical exclude telepathy from the
ghosts, 115 hving, 294
" Well-attested narratives must not "
Inter jectors at stances ; how they
be rejected because they sound often exclude telepathy, 295-296
grotesque, 115 "
Cross-correspondencesto exclude
Subconsciousness, The source of ventions,
in- telepathy, 296-299
144 Tennyson, Lord Alfred, On life,77
" Von Hartmann on, 146 " On guardian spirits, 145
" Ladd on, 147 "
Rejects fusion of self into a general
" Professor Montgomery on, 148 soul, 215
" Wundt on, 148 " On intercommunion with spiritsof
" Waldstein on, 149 the dead, 405
" Professor O. W. Holmes on, 149 Terriss,William, the well-known actor,
" Dr G. Thompson on, 149 310
" Professor Barker on, 150 " Frederick Lane's prevision of his
" Dr Ward on, 150 murder, 310-315
" Charles Darwin on, 150-151 Tertullian, On the vast sweep of
" Professor James on, 223 Christianity,29
" W. H. F, Myers on, 224 " Tertullian and Irenaeus ; causes
" Professor Bowen on, 146 and results,29
" Dr Schofield on, 128, 147, 339 Tescatlipoca,The Aztec god of crystal
" Dr W. B. Carpenter on, 398 vision, 273
" The Author's experiments on, " The son of the never-represented
151 God
supreme, 273
"
Description of, with its effects in Tesla, Nikola, On the infinite energy
"
religiousconversion, 383-387 stored up," 225
"
Supernatural in Nature," God " On the further guidance of the
prominent in the minds of primitive spirit,
225
man ; no tribe or people without " On the ether, 354
religion,56 Theology, Its artificial character, 5
Superstition, Joel Chandler Harris on " Professor James on, 4
mystery, 402-403 " Rev. Dr Davies on, 5
" Former attitude of science ; to fall " Max Miiller on, 5
back on an a priori. This was " Romanes on, 5
itself to fall back on a gross " Rev, Dr Gladden on, 6-8
superstition,
9 " The old theology emphasised God's
Swift, Dean, His "Gulliver"; their sovereignty ; the new His
system of philosophy ; much like righteousness,7
what recentlypassed for science, 73 " Sectarian theology ; an absentee
God, 191
Table-tipping, Case of John Steefa, " Has swept countless millions into
372-374 infidelity,
191
 432 GENERAL INDEX OF

Theology continued
"
Visions of the Sane " continued
" The religious faith of two little "

Experiences of the Author, 378-382

girls,192 "

Explanations considered, 376, 378,

" The alUance of theology with 379, 381
materialism, 43-49, 169 Vis Medicatrix Naturae, Allied to
Thomas, Cyrus, On Maya Codices, 195 psychical heredity, 222
Thomson, Professor Wm. H., On living Vitality, How it opposes chemical
and dead protoplasm, 94 decomposition, 17
" On development of a whale, 95 "
Sir Wm. Crookes on life,18
" On sleep and awakening, 96 "
Lord Kelvin on, 94-95
" On credulity and incredulity,104 " Professor Orton on, 31
" Mind a great reality,
225 Volition, The only scientific basis of
" There is nothing inconceivable in evolution, 240
its separate existence, 225 Von Hartmann (see Hartmann, Von)
Thompson, Dr G., On the consciousness,
sub-
149-150 Waldstein, On the subconscious, 149
Transcendentalism, What the term Wallace, Alfred Russel, On a priori;
signifies,
216 has been given up, 76
" Contrasted
empiricism, 216 with " On Hume's argument, 89-90
Trollope, T. A., Testimony of Bosco, " Criticism of Dr Carpenter for
the great professorof legerdemain, suppression, 127
on spiritualphenomena, 253 Ward, Dr, On psychology of plants,
" Not a spiritualist
; some of his
experiences,254 " On the subconsciousness, 150
" Narrates two apparitional cases, Warschauer, Dr, All science rests on

344-347 prior assumptions transcending

"
Tylor, His Primitive Culture," 56 scientific proof, 134
" On reUgion ; dates it back, possibly, " The scope of the natural sciences,
origin of man,
to 57 134
" All religionsconnected, 57 Webster, Noah, Definition of the term
"
Thoughts and principlesof modern psychological,13
Christianityhave clues extending "
Definition of transcendentalism, 216
back to origin of mankind, 81 Weismann, August, His Germ- "

Tyndall, John, On chasm between Plasm "

theory, 220
matter and consciousness, 135 "
Tentatively suggested, 221
On presence of a strongly magnetic Westcott, On absence of care to pre-
"

serve
scepticat a stance, 252 the books of the New
Testament in early times, 22
Unconscious, The, Dr Wm. B. "
Disappearance of original copies ;
Carpenter's concession of mediate
im- transcriptions not always accurate,
insight,to supersede the 22

operations of the intellect,398 God's miraculous spiritualcare, 22 "

United States Supreme Court, Patent Whitman, Walt, On the divine in man,
cases, 142-143 399
"
Universe, Stewart and Tait on its "
The creative thought of Deity,"
development, 107 400
" Nikola Tesla on its infinite energy, Wilkinson, Dr J. J, Garth, On rareness
225 of
spiritual manifestations ; "a
" Romanes its universal
on order, 84 proof of the economic wisdom of
" On the of
spirit the universe, 84 the Almighty," 250
" On itspsychism, 84 Wireless Telegraphy, Consideration of
" On causalityin the universe, 43-47 wireless telegraphy, 293-294
" Contrasted with telepathy,294
Varley, Mr Cromwell, On
disturbing " Not atmospheric ; purely ethereal,
influence of a strongly magnetic 293
person, 252 " Consciousness
the psychical basis
Verworm, On psychology of organisms,
micro- telepathy ; vibrations of
mitted,
trans-
183 the physical basis of wire-
less
Visions of the same, Francis Galton on, telegraphy, 294
376-379 Wolseley, Lord, On electrical power in
" Other writers on, 376 great commanders, 288
"
Experiences of a patient of the " cited, 289 Examples
Author, 376-377 Wordsworth, William, On pagan creed
"
Experiences of another lady,377-378 as preferableto materialism, 161
 SUBJECTS AND AUTHORITIES 433
Wordsworth, William " continued Zoospores, Psychology of ; heredity
" On heredity (as from God our ., impossible,220
home), 220 " Gifts or endowments must have
Wundt, On the subconsciousness, 148 come with a leap ; Binet on

micro-organisms, 183
XiMENES, Cardinal, Greek Testament {Note. Readers
"
should not fail
Psychic Life of
"
owes its completed form to to study Binet's
Ximenes (1514),22-23 Micro Organisms," as well as
-

" Erasmus followed at nearly same Conn, Sandeman, Orton and

'

time, 22 Shaler.)

2E
 NEW YORK, gATUl

BOTH SIDES nouncement that she was "very hai

monious." Acting: on" the hint, sh
"
lost no time "
in
OF THE VEIL ment for a private
making an appoini
sitting with Mr:
Piper, and from that moment was a
A Book by One Who,
^""^^"^^ psychical
,
Having
aring
reasearcher. collabo
^^^^^^ ^.^^^ ^^ Hodgson and other
Paid the Piper,Let vestigators of the Piper phenomena
and having numerous sittings of he
Her Call the own. But it would appear that she wa;
not fully (committed to the spiritisti"
Tune view until after the death, in 1902, o
Gen.

By H. ADDINGTON BRUCE
(3 Augustus
ton's foremost citizens and
P.

long a prom
Martin, one of Bos

inent official of that

city.
T WOULD be rash to
Miss Bobbins had been

I conjecture
have been
how

converted
many
to
attempt
persons

spiritism
to
M'ith

tary
Gen. Martin
and
for years
associatec

confidential
as

adviser, and
secre-
hi"
through ^the trance death came to her
utterances of as a great persona]
loss. But to
soon, her mingled aston-
"9UX ..-paui'Biis'Bun pui^" "pnu soanSij 8jb
; ishment and delight, a
9\\\ "\-z\i\JBap 95inb SI ji :jnq '^usuioui b "control," pur-
^luo s;sBi uonij^ddB . porting to be his discarnate
!dxa pu^B 'XMop^qs spirit, be-
puB uiip AjaA gan to speak with her
HB SI ;i -eiBuioj put; "i-bui j through Mrs.
"sojnSij epnu om:^ " j^addB eaaqj A-eid eq; I Piper, making statements of such a
JO pua 9q; ;v ./saxes "q; jo uon-ea-Bdag character as to satisfy her
, that she was
"qj Sun-Bn^uaooB ups "jaM saojoj iLiB actually In communication
,
with her de-
-uonnioAaci puB '"Uitgojpuv "q o; pssBSD parted friend.
ITBUI qorqAi , Some of these state-
u\ ouij:j jenJB" nns ;Bq; o:j
ments, together with
snoSoiBUB euij^ b ;b "piuiBJ^ti ;b8jo oq^ , much else that
"
she frankly
JO jaquiBqo b u; "OBid Sui^ib^ (.,osubo . describes as non-eviden-
"ili") T: lOV
tial, form a great part of
"A^ snqiPUIJ "-9UiC3 her book.
-oapuv ^oojjad "onpoid "q"
o^ saniuij
Largely this portion of it is made up
JO 2uipu9iq of descriptions of
-JB UBuinq "q^ jo Xaoaqi l^j life "
beyond the
-nnBaq oq; pajnjoid si "aaq:j *;uauiqoB;;B veil," descriptions which many people
Jiaq; jo uorssaadxa
jBOiSitqa "q; paqsinb will doubtless find most
-ujiaa SuiABq 'iJ^uanbasqas puB 'uoiun interestingand
illummating. If Gen. Martin's "
Jiaq:; ^uaAaad o; ojidsuoo suonipuoo 'isjjj spirit "

IS
^B '"aaqM. *saaAoi "q^
a
trustworthy witness, life in the mi-
"uioo oji^ uaapoui
seen world is
oj, iCuBUi much like life here
-sqiBap puB saAfi naq^ spuiq on
earth. Thus, at
^Bqj "r; oaoi b paSjoj ej "aaqAi 'suiSaq one stance, Miss RotX^
bins was told that
^T ;diC3a XiJBa u| 3ioBa "naAOAi S| j"Bid after his death th"
oq^ uonBajBouiaa jo Bapi "q^ uo :5iBad5 General" had been
,,
conducted, by
q:)joj"i -JH ^ai -esauaAnoajJ" s^! uiojj spiritual guides, to a beautiful house,
^OBJtjap ;ou saop X;9Ijba snotosuoDun aq^
JO ST Jouinq eq:j :jBqx "Jouinq :iUBpunqB
uSiIaoT
-paSBS^^^A^\^^u^^s.
gratified.
BuiB^uoo ^i" ^pam :jboj2 "uo sBq '(iJ B9SSBI0 qotqM uodn
9q; i^jo^stq pu a.^ ,

*ssaJd: uapiof) aqj;, :saiaSuv sot;) ..

oui-bi^ -V\ :;uaui9icldns o^ sb P93ubj ^ ^.
"q^

"^lUAi. "Ui "

'-^Bid s.q:jaoM "5ini -jk '9iqissod SB JBj SB 'puB *Xa^.9od (5* " rs ^^^
"sajnt^oia paziiBnsiA Xiisb" pjBpuBtjs p9;uud9J uo p9SBq 9JB ^
^
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^nq IpSi^Bidsjp si sauaos aAT:)oajja SuiSubj 'ssaujnjq^nj^ ui uoi;jonj;sui SurpnpuT puB
-JB joj apn:)T:jdB antm B ^ou puB !unu sapBjS
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"q^ JO X^vc\. "\QCQ-\o\x.'uMBjp iiaAi ajB sjaj o:^ p9aBd9jd XnnjoJBO SuiqoBa:^ jo 9Sjnoo
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""jjl S.J9AOI J9q S9ABS 9qs (^ aSn jJ9:)qns "qt qSnojqj pguanq s^iooq 9q; Suotnv
snoiAqo siq:^ tjnoqtjiM. op ^spBuiBjp Jnaj
"tjqSn^q^
 REASON 31

Eminent Hen on Spiritualism

Nikola Tesla states organized beings
: "We can conceive of
living without nourishment, and deriving all the energy they
need for the performance of their life-functions from the ambient
medium. In view of this possibility nay, probability we not
can- " "

deny the existence of organized beings on a planet merely

because the conditions on the same are unsuitable for the ence
exist-
of life as we conceive it. We cannot even, with positiveas-
surance,

assert that some of them might not be present here, in

this world, in the very midst of us, for their constitution and life-
manifestation may be such that we are unable to perceive them."
Henry Dumay twenty-five years ago
writes : "It was at least
when Mark Twain
a long magazine tellinghis belief
wrote article
in telepathiccorrespondence and the materialization of spirits.
And later (in 1894, if memory is precise) Hamlin Garland, the
American novelist and historian, told the present writer about
facts of the same order which had happened to him (Garland) or

in his presence, and had puzzled him ever since."

"In France, Camille Flammarion, the astronomer; Clovis
Hugues, the poet and ; James Tissot, the painter; Vic-
statesman
torien Sardou, the playwright; and De Bocas, the merchant
prince,are but few of the great names which could be cited among
the believers of Spiritualism who proclaimed their faith long
ago, basing their belief in it on personal experiences."
Rev. Heber Newton asserts : "Death is no real break in life.
It will be this life carried on
higher; not another life at all,but
one and the same life in nobler
unfolding. Men and women can

hold conscious communion with spiritsI know, not from my own

personal experience, but from the personal experiences of friends

whose truthfulness is beyond doubt."
Ralph Waldo Trine, the author, affirms that : "Spiritual
communion whether between two persons in the body, or two

persons, one in the body and one out of the body, is within reach
of all."
Geo. T.
Angell, the noted Boston Humanitarian, declares:
In the history of my own life,and the progress of the work in
lich I have been engaged during the past thirty-threeyears I
e seen things which, unless there were some SpiritualPowers
g would seem miraculous."
"^r. Alfred Russell Wallace, the co-laborer of Darwin, re-

"I myself had been for

nearly thirty years an agnostic
investigated these psychic phenomena, and found them,
11 my prepossessions, to be realities. Is it rational to
deny phenomena which have been demonstrated to the
^
of such men as Robert Chambers, Professor De
"-. Lockhart Robertson, Sir William Crookes, and
'
.ner eminent men?"